Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra / Midori / Christoph Eschenbach

Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra / Alisa Weilerstein / Christoph Eschenbach

Every year, Principal Conductor Christoph Eschenbach conducts the last concerts of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, which is always made up of around 120 young musicians from all over the world for one summer. There is a very special fascination when the 84-year-old maestro, who has around 60 years of life experience ahead of his orchestra members, takes to the podium. The cello concerto by Antonín Dvořák is one of the most popular works in its genre. The solo part will be performed by the American virtuoso Alisa Weilerstein, who is celebrated not only for her outstanding musicality but also for her depth of interpretation. In 2006, she was the first cellist to receive the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and is now at home on the world’s major stages. After more than 30 years with the festival orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach conducts a symphony by Franz Schubert for the first time. The composer’s »Unfinished« Symphony – in B minor, like Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – is certainly not the most demanding work on this year’s Festival Orchestra programme, but the orchestra has the opportunity to demonstrate true mastery here, especially in terms of playing culture and dexterity!

Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Schmitt

Happy 85th birthday on 20 February 2025! We wish this to our Honorary Conductor, for whom one thing is for sure: »Music gives you youth, freshness and lots of new beginnings.« Christoph Eschenbach always leaves an impression with his unmistakable aura: he is not a podium matador by any means, but rather comes across at times like a Buddhist monk with his convincing gestures and penetrating eyes full of warm-heartedness. A conductor who prefers silence rather than many words – and one who sees himself as a »musician among musicians«. This results in captivating interpretations with a great sense of mutual understanding, including such works close to his heart as in this year’s programme: Christoph Eschenbach once said that Bruckner was one of his »greatest treasures«. He discovered his love for Bruckner’s music while listening to a radio programme as a boy. And it still fascinates him to this day, so he explores the fascination of Bruckner’s first work with us – this »cheeky little fellow«. It is truly a great blessing that we have been able to come together with such a charismatic artistic personality for such a long time. It is like a longstanding and very close love affair that is constantly being revitalised – also with Saint-Saëns’ »Organ Symphony«: this powerful piece was recorded with Christoph Eschenbach and our orchestra at the Bamberg Cathedral back in 1987 for an audio release. We have every reason to be excited about how the work will sound together with our house organist Christian Schmitt on the concert organ our audience loves so much – after all, our Honorary Conductor remains curious in his old age: »I want to still be conducting when I’m 100, because I might be able to discover even more at the age of 99 than I can at the moment.«

Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Schmitt

Happy 85th birthday on 20 February 2025! We wish this to our Honorary Conductor, for whom one thing is for sure: »Music gives you youth, freshness and lots of new beginnings.« Christoph Eschenbach always leaves an impression with his unmistakable aura: he is not a podium matador by any means, but rather comes across at times like a Buddhist monk with his convincing gestures and penetrating eyes full of warm-heartedness. A conductor who prefers silence rather than many words – and one who sees himself as a »musician among musicians«. This results in captivating interpretations with a great sense of mutual understanding, including such works close to his heart as in this year’s programme: Christoph Eschenbach once said that Bruckner was one of his »greatest treasures«. He discovered his love for Bruckner’s music while listening to a radio programme as a boy. And it still fascinates him to this day, so he explores the fascination of Bruckner’s first work with us – this »cheeky little fellow«. It is truly a great blessing that we have been able to come together with such a charismatic artistic personality for such a long time. It is like a longstanding and very close love affair that is constantly being revitalised – also with Saint-Saëns’ »Organ Symphony«: this powerful piece was recorded with Christoph Eschenbach and our orchestra at the Bamberg Cathedral back in 1987 for an audio release. We have every reason to be excited about how the work will sound together with our house organist Christian Schmitt on the concert organ our audience loves so much – after all, our Honorary Conductor remains curious in his old age: »I want to still be conducting when I’m 100, because I might be able to discover even more at the age of 99 than I can at the moment.«

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Christoph Eschenbach

Congratulations, dear Christoph Eschenbach: we are honouring our former chief conductor, who led the Konzerthausorchester Berlin from autumn 2019 to summer 2023, on his 85th birthday with a concert in which he will be conducting in the Große Saal, of course.For this special occasion, he has chosen a work of a composer who had late start: Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896) did not begin writing symphonies until he was over 40 years old. The fact that he, like Beethoven, came up with a total of nine ‘cathedrals of never-before-heard sounds’ (Lorin Maazel) despite this is a real miracle - and doubly so in view of his self-doubting character: he actually completed the final version of the Sixth within two years. He called it his ‘cheekiest’ symphony, and as such it does not rise slowly from a musical primordial fog, but begins directly and with an accentuated rhythm. It was premièred in parts in 1883, heavily abridged in 1899 and not performed in its entirety until 1935. Bruckner was only able to hear it once in its entirety during an orchestral rehearsal.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Christoph Eschenbach

Our former chief conductor Christoph Eschenbach is back on the podium of the Konzerthausorchester and is bringing a highly talented young pianist with him: The 19-year-old Simon Haje will play Beethoven's fourth piano concerto from 1805, which already points in the direction of Romanticism. Robert Schumann was not the only one who loved the work, which is the first of its genre to begin directly with the solo instrument. The audience also liked it extraordinarily well straight away. Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 did not fare so well at first, which is why the easily unsettled composer revised it more often than any other of his nine symphonies. It was not until 1890 (17 years after the completion of the first version) that musicians and Viennese audiences finally stopped objecting and the work was finalised!

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Christoph Eschenbach

Our former chief conductor Christoph Eschenbach is back on the podium of the Konzerthausorchester and is bringing a highly talented young pianist with him: The 19-year-old Simon Haje will play Beethoven's fourth piano concerto from 1805, which already points in the direction of Romanticism. Robert Schumann was not the only one who loved the work, which is the first of its genre to begin directly with the solo instrument. The audience also liked it extraordinarily well straight away. Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 did not fare so well at first, which is why the easily unsettled composer revised it more often than any other of his nine symphonies. It was not until 1890 (17 years after the completion of the first version) that musicians and Viennese audiences finally stopped objecting and the work was finalised!

Our honorary conductor Christoph Eschenbach

»And the soul, unguarded, wants to soar in free flights, to live within the magic circle of the night deeply and a thousandfold.« These dream-lorn lines by Hermann Hesse inspired Richard Strauss to write one of his moving »Four Last Songs«. These depict a life cycle and bear witness to his confrontation with his own death. At 83, the aged composer looked back on his triumphant life »weary of wandering«. When a journalist asked him about his next projects, Strauss answered with a wink: »Well, just die!« But his son persuaded him to compose another »major work«, saying, »Dad, stop brooding, write some beautiful songs instead.« And Strauss succeeded in a beguiling way, for the highly romantic settings hover in an inimitable atmosphere of weightlessness. With us, the voice of Hanna-Elisabeth Müller soars to these soulful songs. Christoph Eschenbach then leads us through a work by Bruckner that was first performed in 1873 and was composed as a direct expression of a deep life crisis due to the so-called »St. Anna affair«: as he was hardly noticed as a composer in Vienna at that time, he gave piano lessons at the St. Anna educational institution – and once confidentially called one of his pupils »my darling«. Even though Bruckner felt wrongly suspected, the newspapers made a scandal out of this event. He was soon rehabilitated, but wrote his second symphony in this humiliated state of mind – which therefore has a restless, pessimistic underlying mood: it fluctuates between heartfelt prayers, desperate outbursts, clueless silences and wild dance scenes.

Christoph Eschenbach dirigiert Elgar und Brahms

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Beethoven and Brahms

In this concert, our honorary conductor guides us through a programme that brings to mind Goethe: »A thousand and a thousand thoughts rise and sink within me. My soul is like an everlasting firework without rest.« Beethoven could certainly have said the same thing about his hot-tempered disposition and extreme mood swings. His violin concerto was composed in 1806 – but he wrote down his many ideas for it so late that the premiere violinist had to play this rather difficult piece almost from sight. It is characterised by a spirit that is certainly reminiscent of the proverb that nowadays goes by the motto »Himmelhoch jauchzend, zu Tode betrübt« (»rejoicing to the skies, saddened to death«). A masterpiece from the history of music, for which we welcome as soloist María Dueñas, an »Andalusian violin miracle«: it is said of the young virtuoso that she elicits »a soulful and at times a fiery sound« from her instrument. Beethoven‘s groundbreaking compositions were both a curse and a blessing for the following generations – including Brahms, who confided to a friend: »You have no idea how it makes all of us feel to hear such a giant marching behind you all the time.« But on the other hand, Beethoven was also seen as his great role model. Nevertheless, it took Brahms a very long time to complete his first symphony: he spent 14 years crafting it, with interruptions from 1862 to 1876. And then, after this fierce symphonic struggle, there was finally lots of balm for his soul: Hans von Bülow was so enthusiastic about the First that he exuberantly described it as »Beethoven‘s Tenth«. The work is a stroke of genius: from the fateful conflict in the opening to the emotional triumph in the final movement – and all in all an enchanting journey of discovery with many interwoven insights.