The Image of Melancholy: John Dowland and Henry Purcell

Pearls in Baroque: The French Connection of Purcell

Countertenor Alexander Chance sings Purcell

For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!

»The Art of Being Human«

Human existence is a contradictory business. »The Art of Being Human« explores the complex impacts of this trite fact. The Grammy award-winning viola da gamba ensemble Phantasm thereby ensures a musical performance at the very highest level. Its members put their instrumental mastery into operation for an evening in which old sounds and contemporary dance blend into an inseparable unit and jointly try to fathom the darkest recesses of the human condition. Choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and allround visual artist Alexander Polzin create a multidisciplinary framework in which music and movement come together, connect with each other, hook into each other, collide and cross fertilise. Under the leadership of Laurence Dreyfus, Phantasm plays music of English masters, such as John Dowland, Henry Purcell and William Byrd. At the same time, the musicians interact in the most diverse way with the dancers, who move as partners and yet adversaries around sculptures by the Berlin artist Alexander Polzin. The result is a staged concert evening, which makes full use of the potential of this currently popular format!

Works by Jacob, Purcell, Britten, Vaughan Willams, Bridge and Bax

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

So much can be captured: what is known as early music (literally, »old music« in German) has long since no longer only been in the hands of the old guard, who did important pioneering work. More and more young artists, trained in specialised degree programmes, are flocking onto the stages of this world to revive the music of the past few centuries in fresh interpretations. One of the current stars on this scene is French baroque violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who – following his performance in the Elbphilharmonie »Fast Lane« series – you can now experience with his own ensemble Le Consort. On the programme is one work that needs no introduction: Antonio Vivaldi’s »Four Seasons«. The collection of four violin concertos portraying the seasons is one of the earliest and most famous examples of programme music – and surely one of the most popular works of all in the history of music. De Swarte now skilfully combines it in his programme with other concertos and overtures by Vivaldi and his contemporaries – and so makes the seasons appear in a new guise.

Max Volbers "Dance and Firework"

Max Volbers, a recorder virtuoso, studied under Dorothee Oberlinger. He plays a variety of recorders, calling them the "Flauto Dolce" family. His colorful programs, often with his own arrangements, are performed with harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen. A post-concert artist talk with Daniel Finkernagel is included. Registration is required for the "Sunday Matinee Plus" for seniors.

Mahan Esfahani: Gibbons, Bach and Scarlatti

For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!

The Wedding of the Sun King

Probably France’s largest 17th century festival comes to life again here: the wedding between the »Sun King« Louis XIV and the Spanish princess Marie-Thérèse ended the long-standing hostility of both countries in 1660 and was fittingly ostentatiously celebrated, firstly on the Spanish border, then in Paris. Thereby, a large-scale musical setting befitting their social status from sacred works via fanfares to dance and opera should also be included. Vincent Dumestre, with his period performance orchestra Le Poème Harmonique and vocalists, has put together a splendid panorama of French baroque music, which transforms the entire Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall into a royal ballroom. The proverbial timpani and trumpets sound, there is a lot of music by Jean-Baptiste Lully – Louis XIV’s favourite composer – and by Francesco Cavalli, who travelled from Italy to Paris for the wedding specifically for performances of his operas. This programme incidentally evolved from Dumestre and his ensembles for the Palace of Versailles, which the Sun King had built as an overflowing, sumptuous structure – also to make space for the theatre, ballet and opera performances he so loved. Today, the stars of the early music scene take golden hammers into their hands here and sound repertoire gems of the 16th to 18th century.

Iestyn Davies, Robin Ticciati and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Anyone who delves into George Frideric Handel’s vocal and instrumental music will find a wealth of treasures. Elegance, virtuosity, delicacy – all this can be discovered in an endlessly inventive world of musical expression. In a programme with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Robin Ticciati, you can experience some of Handel’s most beautiful arias and orchestral pieces from operas and other works. Iestyn Davies, one of the leading countertenors of our time, is the soloist. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a great admirer of Handel. His festive and exuberant “Haffner Symphony” concludes the programme.