The Swiss Connection: Stravinsky & Martin

The Vienna-Berlin Connection

The ensemble Philharmonix is a mix of members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. What brings them together? The shared urge to combine classical music with jazz, Latin, folk, Hollywood melodies and pop. And so, in this concert, you can hear excerpts from Strauss’s exhilarating operetta Die Fledermaus alongside Schoenberg’s forward-looking Chamber Symphony No. 1, Schubert’s romantic “Death and the Maiden” Quartet as well as a tribute to the Austrian pop singer Falco – all in witty, spirited, unconventional arrangements that play with our expectations and hold loads of surprises.

Adámek: Connection Impossible

The creation of the music theatre piece "Unmögliche Verbindung" ("Impossible Connection") is an adventure for both composer Ondřej Adámek and the musicians of Ensemble Modern. They're involved in the creative process and decisively shape the composition. The performance deals with communication breakdowns, a familiar experience. The experimental contemporary music theatre piece, a collaboration between Adámek, director Thomas Fiedler, and Ensemble Modern, makes the audience and musicians direct participants in the creative process.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra / William Barton / Jaime Martín

For the first time ever in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall, this concert is set to feature the unique combination of didgeridoo and orchestra. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, one of Australia’s finest ensembles, joins forces with renowned didgeridoo soloist William Barton to bring this extraordinary performance to Hamburg. Alongside this groundbreaking work, the programme also includes Mussorgsky’s »Pictures at an Exhibition«, a timeless classic that invites the audience on a musical journey through a museum. In the languages of the First Nations, the indigenous population of Australia, the didgeridoo is also called the yidaki. For William Barton, himself a member of the Kalkatungu people of northern Australia, it is far more than just an instrument: »The yidaki embodies everything of the land, because it’s from the tree, it’s the breath of life and the land, of sustenance to us as human beings. It embodies the history of those old trees. The yidaki has memories, it’s the breath of our ancestors.« Both Barton and the composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon have set themselves the goal of blending the music of their ancestors with Western traditions and making it accessible to many more people in the process. Modest Mussorgsky created a musical monument to his friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann, with his cycle »Pictures at an Exhibition«. Inspired by an exhibition of Hartmann’s works, Mussorgsky transformed a stroll through the gallery into a vivid musical experience – capturing scenes like an ancient castle, children playing in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, the bustling market square in Limoges, and the famous Great Gate of Kiev. Close your eyes and let the music paint the pictures!

The Rise / Ictus Ensemble

What would happen if humanity could pass through the gateway to the underworld and restart once again in another realm? Eva Reiter’s experimental opera »The Rise«, written on the basis of poems by the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Louise Glück and staged by choreographer Michiel Vandeveldes, acts out this vision. Deaf actor Ruben Grandits, whose gestures are converted into intoxicating sounds via sensors on his hands, acts in the spotlight. As master of ceremonies, he directs the other people on the stage with his gestures and sounds. A new language, a new company and a new music emerge in the interaction of instruments specifically built for this purpose, electronically transformed sounds and the movements of the performers. The specially designed instruments visually transform movement into sounds. Music, dance and language merge into image and sound – »The Rise« is, consequently, equally accessible to deaf and hearing people.

The Rise / Ictus Ensemble

What would happen if humanity could pass through the gateway to the underworld and restart once again in another realm? Eva Reiter’s experimental opera »The Rise«, written on the basis of poems by the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Louise Glück and staged by choreographer Michiel Vandeveldes, acts out this vision. Deaf actor Ruben Grandits, whose gestures are converted into intoxicating sounds via sensors on his hands, acts in the spotlight. As master of ceremonies, he directs the other people on the stage with his gestures and sounds. A new language, a new company and a new music emerge in the interaction of instruments specifically built for this purpose, electronically transformed sounds and the movements of the performers. The specially designed instruments visually transform movement into sounds. Music, dance and language merge into image and sound – »The Rise« is, consequently, equally accessible to deaf and hearing people.

The Foundations, a contemporary oratorio

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Boulez and the young generation

Pierre Boulez catapulted himself to the forefront of music pioneers in 1955 with his chamber cantata »Le marteau sans maître« (The Hammer Without a Master). Top young talents such as Ema Nikolovska and Sean Shibe, both Elbphilharmonie FAST LANE artists, juxtapose the Boulez with works by the next generation as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival with the motto »Future«: a brand new piece by drummer and Pulitzer Prize winner Tyshawn Sorey (also featured in the Elbphilharmonie’s »Jazz Drums« focus) and »Bel Canto« by Cassandra Miller, which is dedicated to the opera diva Maria Callas. »Le marteau sans maître« is one of Boulez’s most renowned signature works. He took three surrealist poems by the Frenchman René Char from his eponymous collection as the starting point for this composition for alto voice and six instruments. This is not a traditional setting of text to music though. While the verses are sung, they are also interpreted purely instrumentally – resulting in an almost labyrinthine realm of words and sounds that invite the listener in to search and discover.

Ravel Poulenc Martin

Ravel Poulenc Martin