Sold out: Giuseppe Mengoli conducts Beethoven and Mozart

Sold out: Giuseppe Mengoli conducts Beethoven and Mozart

Unfortunately, our Honorary Conductor Herbert Blomstedt is not able to conduct this concert as planned, as well as pianist Maria João Pires cannot come to Bamberg, both due to health reasons. Gladly Giuseppe Mengoli and Francesco Piemontesi will both step in on short notice. The concert programme remains unchanged.The two pieces of this concert evening are perfectly suited as spiritual mourishment: Mozart‘s triumphant »Jupiter Symphony« from 1788 is seen as the artistic pinnacle of his creative work. As was often the case in his life, he was struggling with the hardships of everyday life at that time, and so the Andante in particular encapsulates a whole range of musical feelings – from intense inwardness to passion and aching sadness to the grandiose. Otherwise, however, the symphony is an optimistically shining piece in luminous C major – its later added title emphasising the power of the heavenly father and light-bringer Jupiter, the supreme deity in Roman mythology. Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto was also composed in 1806 during a worrisome time: the agonies of deafness and the loneliness associated with it increasingly troubled the composer – and he once said: »Music is the climate of my soul.« When composing this grandiose work, Beethoven is believed to have been thinking of the Greek myth of the legendary poet-musician Orpheus, who subdued the dark demons of the underworld with his beguiling sounds.

SOLD OUT: Kent Nagano conducts Hosokawa and Bruckner

»The flute so gracefully captures the ears that it brings calm and peace to all emotions, right into the soul«. This quote from Plutarch builds a wonderful bridge to the opening of our concert – the spiritual flute concerto by the prominent Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa. Premiered in 2022, the piece is about a fascinating ceremony. According to Hosokawa, the solo part represents »a shamanic person« who invokes the orchestra as »the world, the universe, nature« using breathing sounds to summon supernatural forces: »The breathing sounds echo through the flute just like the wind in nature and become the song that awakens the spirit.« Our solo flutist Daniela Koch assumes the role of the shaman in this ritualistic piece, about which Hosokawa noted that it was »also prayer music for the end of the pandemic, as it was composed during the Corona catastrophe.« This fits with something Bruckner said in 1874 shortly after completing the first version of his third symphony: »Because the present state of the world, spiritually speaking, is weakness, I resort to strength and compose powerful music.« Many of Bruckner's movements are symphonic canticles in a sublime style, moving through the struggles and trials of a soul seeking its way to salvation through pain and suffering. Since the premiere of his third symphony was a dreadful disaster for him, he revised it multiple times, feeling deeply depressed – and finally scored a success with the 1889 version. Bruckner said about the fluctuating moods of this symphonic cosmos: »That‘s just the way it is in life. The polka stands for the humour and cheerfulness of the world – the chorale for the sadness and pain in it.«

SOLD OUT: MOZARTFEST WÜRZBURG

“In the rising of a symphony there is something divine, something similar to creation itself." (Leonard Bernstein) Life is in constant transformation and the world in constant change – and so, too, is the history of music! When eight-year-old Mozart composed his first symphonic work in 1764, the late baroque was transitioning to the classical era. The symphony was in the process of emancipating itself from its origins in the overture to Neapolitan opera. In this concert, our orchestra will perform two early symphonies by Mozart, who once said, "Creation emerges as in a pleasant and lively dream." Conductor Fabio Biondi specialises in bringing rare works to the stage, and thus this programme will feature works seldom heard from his native Italy. The Milanese composer Carlo Monza was highly regarded during his lifetime, but only a few of his pieces have been rediscovered to date. One of these is the striking Sinfonia "La tempesta di mare" of 1784, where the music condenses into a veritable storm. Giuseppe Sammartini was likewise born in Milan and later worked in London, where he was considered one of the greatest oboists of his day. His popular instrumental concertos were said to be "full of science, originality and fire". The talented Niccoló Jommelli came from Naples, but was successful beyond Italy’s borders. His opera symphonies in particular were considered exemplary and were widely disseminated as independent works from 1750 onwards. Our programme will end with a composition by another famous Wunderkind: in 1824, at the age of just 15, Mendelssohn wrote his extravagantly romantic C minor Symphony – an astonishing creation of which it was said: "New, beautiful, original. Spirit, flow, calm, melodiousness, wholeness, drama."

SOLD OUT: MOZARTFEST WÜRZBURG

“In the rising of a symphony there is something divine, something similar to creation itself." (Leonard Bernstein) Life is in constant transformation and the world in constant change – and so, too, is the history of music! When eight-year-old Mozart composed his first symphonic work in 1764, the late baroque was transitioning to the classical era. The symphony was in the process of emancipating itself from its origins in the overture to Neapolitan opera. In this concert, our orchestra will perform two early symphonies by Mozart, who once said, "Creation emerges as in a pleasant and lively dream." Conductor Fabio Biondi specialises in bringing rare works to the stage, and thus this programme will feature works seldom heard from his native Italy. The Milanese composer Carlo Monza was highly regarded during his lifetime, but only a few of his pieces have been rediscovered to date. One of these is the striking Sinfonia "La tempesta di mare" of 1784, where the music condenses into a veritable storm. Giuseppe Sammartini was likewise born in Milan and later worked in London, where he was considered one of the greatest oboists of his day. His popular instrumental concertos were said to be "full of science, originality and fire". The talented Niccoló Jommelli came from Naples, but was successful beyond Italy’s borders. His opera symphonies in particular were considered exemplary and were widely disseminated as independent works from 1750 onwards. Our programme will end with a composition by another famous Wunderkind: in 1824, at the age of just 15, Mendelssohn wrote his extravagantly romantic C minor Symphony – an astonishing creation of which it was said: "New, beautiful, original. Spirit, flow, calm, melodiousness, wholeness, drama."

Works by Mozart and Beethoven

Works by Mozart and Beethoven

Hrůša conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich

The Year 1905: Shostakovich’s monumental symphony meets Beethoven at his brightest. Unchained energy from conductor Jakub Hrůša, pianist Jonathan Biss and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

SOLD OUT: Beethoven: Piano Concerto in E flat major and Symphony No. 5

Ludwig van Beethoven: genius, freethinker and troubled soul – as well as a master of coping with crises through music. In 1809, he lamented: »We have experienced a rather crowded misery. The entire course of events has affected my body and soul. What a destructive, desolate life around me! Nothing but drums, cannons, all kinds of human misery!« At that time, he was greatly distressed by the current situation, as Vienna was occupied by Napoleon's troops. Food shortages, the black market and inflation were making life difficult for the people. Beethoven often sought shelter in the cellar – and put pillows over his head to avoid hearing the noise. But despite these unfavourable conditions, he wrote his great Fifth Piano Concerto: a gigantic work that gives the impression as if he wanted to drown out the chaos of war with the power and splendour of his music. For long segments, it spreads a belligerent sound – but with the Adagio, a very contemplative movement is interwoven: Beethoven is said to have been thinking of the »chants of devout pilgrims«. These fragmented states of mind are already pervasive in his Fifth Symphony, which was premiered a year earlier and can certainly be understood as a statement on the political fate of Europe at that time. With its famous obsessive motif, the work is at first full of anxiety and emotional complexity over long stretches. But an astounding inner force is able to find its way out of the initial darkness and into the ever brightening light. Like Beethoven wrote in one of his conversation books, which he used because of his deafness and in which he also collected essential ideas: »With music I have transformed my suffering into hope«.

Works by Schubert, Beethoven and Mozart

Works by Schubert, Beethoven and Mozart