SOPHIE RENNERT & JOSEPH MIDDLETON

Joseph Haydn / Harmoniemesse

William Christie directs two titans of sacred music: Mozart’s Litaniae Lauretanae, described by Albert Einstein as ‘a marvel of art and youth’, followed by Harmoniemesse, one of Haydn’s most imposing compositions.

Anthony Joseph

RAFAEL FINGERLOS & JOSEPH MIDDLETON

In 2016, the composer Robert Fürstenthal died in San Diego, California, at the age of almost 100. After fleeing the Nazis and settling in the United States in 1939, he had a successful career as an accountant before returning to composition in the 1970s, writing music that evokes his hometown of Vienna. Rafael Fingerlos, who collaborated with the composer on the premiere recording of his songs shortly before Fürstenthal’s death, is joined by Joseph Middleton to present a selection of these works, juxtaposed with compositions by Max Bruch, Johannes Brahms, and Franz Schubert.

Joseph Haydn: Die Schöpfung

Haydn had been deeply impressed by the spectacular performances of Handel oratorios when he travelled to England in 1791. Such choirs did not exist in the Italian tradition, to which the Viennese oratorios were also rooted. Why shouldn’t he try something of this kind himself? So he brought back a libretto from England, which had probably first been presented to George Frideric Handel: John Milton’s (1608-1674) epic poem »Paradise Lost«.

Sophie Straat – Punk & Plush

Joseph Haydn – Die Tageszeiten

Musical works of Joseph Haydn , Johann Baptist Vanhal

Joseph Bastian | Brass ensemble

André Heller’s Menschenkinder: Sophie Freud

Sophie Freud (1924-2022), the granddaughter of Sigmund Freud who was born in Vienna and later emigrated to the USA, recounts the emotional stages of her life in conversation with André Heller. Recollections of her grandfather, fleeing the Nazis and her early days and studies in America are only a fraction of this. Sophie Freud was herself a psychologist, social worker and lecturer. She had a critical stance towards the teachings of her grandfather. In his film series »Menschenkinder«, André Heller has been profiling very different personalities and their lives since 2013. Insightful conversations give the interviewees free reign to recount from their memoirs. Without any pressure or specified direction, they disclose such intimate insights into their career, suddenly recollect long-forgotten memories and, completely incidentally, create a panorama of contemporary history and lived-in worlds. In 2016, André Heller invited the granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, the highly educated and humorous psychologist Sophie Freud, before the cameras. Please note: This film will be shown in German.

Anne-Sophie Mutter & Lambert Orkis

»We are like tightrope walkers who try to give each other the optimal position for the triple somersault with a screw,« says Anne-Sophie Mutter, summarising the special nature of her long-standing stage partnership with Lambert Orkis. They have been rehearsing, travelling and performing together for 35 years – and are celebrated worldwide for their intense chamber music dialogues. »We like each other, we like each other’s playing and presence. [...] A large part of our communication is exclusively through sound,« says Orkis, revealing part of the secret of their success. This also includes the well-chosen programme combinations, which always offer room for new discoveries alongside well-known works by Mozart or Schubert – such as the wonderful three Romances by Clara Schumann, which the composer herself once premiered with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim.