Thomas Tol, Jan Smit & MELL

Jan van Duikeren & Marcel Veenendaal

Jan Vogler

The name of the German cellist Jan Vogler is associated with his legendary interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous six solo cello suites. The audience will have the opportunity to hear all six works in one concert and thus follow the fascinating dialogue between Jan Vogler’s Stradivarius cello and Bach’s sonorous universe.

Jan Mráček plays Strawinski

“Coincidence is itself merely the collision of the creative impulses.” (Friedrich Nietzsche) This concert presents a sound sculpture premiered in 1963 that plays with coincidence and seeks to exhaust the possibilities offered by mechanics. Ligeti’s "Poème symphonique" is a fascinating musical experiment: on stage are 100 metronomes, which are set in motion by some musicians. The metronomes tick away valiantly, all higgledy-piggledy at first, but then more and more of them lose their momentum and fall silent, until in the end only the most persistent metronome remains. Stravinsky, a musical revolutionary like Ligeti, once said of his creative ideas: "You take up a tradition to make something new." For his 1931 Violin Concerto, he drew on the baroque era – but defiantly spiced his music with whimsical ingredients from 20th-century light music. We look forward to welcoming Czech violinist Jan Mráček to the stage as our soloist in this exciting work. Mráček was the youngest prize winner of the "Prague Spring" competition in 2010 and since then has carved out a remarkable career. To bring our programme to a close, our orchestra will play a work that critic Eduard Hanslick found to contain an extraordinary "energy of genuine symphonic invention”. Brahms had completed his last symphony during his summer vacation of 1885. Even before its premiere in Meiningen, which the composer himself conducted, the work triggered associations with the cosmos in Brahms’ friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg: "The deeper I look into it, the more stars appear, the more individual joys I have, both expected and surprising, and the clearer becomes the consistent character that makes a unity of this multiplicity”.

Jakub Hrůša, Jan Bartoš

Fascinating expedition: Thanks to Jakub Hrůša, we and our audience regularly get to enjoy gems from the rich treasure trove of Bohemian music repertoire. He loves to bring the stories to the stage that the composers from there have set to music so ingeniously. Smetana in particular was a master of symphonic poems, and in this programme we play no fewer than three of them. They were all composed decades before his famous cycle »Má vlast« and are far too rarely heard in Germany. Based on literature by Shakespeare, Schiller and Adam Oehlenschläger, they revolve around different characters: »Richard III«, »Wallenstein’s Camp« and »Haakon Jarl«. They were inspired around 1860 by an encounter with Franz Liszt – who once praised Smetana with the words: »Here you have the composer with the true Bohemian heart, the artist gifted by God.« To set the mood for these dazzling tone poems, we also present two richly nuanced works: firstly Stravinsky’s magnificent wind symphonies, in his words a »ceremony in which different groups meet in short litany-like dialogues«. Our Chief Conductor has chosen these pieces, first performed in 1921, because he loves the sound of our wind section so much – and is thus able to present them in a perfect light. There is also a work from the pen of the Czech modernist composer that Jakub Hrůša has long been fond of and therefore always wants to draw attention to: together with the accomplished pianist Jan Bartoš, we will perform Martinů's imaginative fifth and final piano concerto from 1958 – a charming example of the emotional power of his music.

Jan Lisiecki : Chamber orchestra

Julia Fischer & Jan Lisiecki

It is by no means a given that outstanding soloists are also brilliant chamber musicians. How do you find a common musical breath? How do you bring your sound ideas together and mould them into a musical thought? Not problems for Julia Fischer and Jan Lisiecki! When they appeared on stage as a duo for the first time at the Rheingau Music Festival in 2022, it was clear that they had found themselves a dream team. The same undisguised view of the works, the same joy of playing and enthusiasm for working together. Luckily for the audience, the pair will also be making a stop in Hamburg on their next tour together, enriching the ProArte programme with a fine evening of chamber music featuring sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.

Jan Lisiecki plays Beethoven

There are few experiences in classical music more invigorating, or more stirring than Sibelius’s Second Symphony. Imagine a swelling river of sound; a musical voyage that begins amid the tranquillity of nature and ends in a surge of triumph. That’s Sibelius’s Second Symphony, and there are few experiences in classical music more invigorating, or more stirring. For the young Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, Sibelius is a national hero. There’s another tale about memory to be told here, as Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki takes centre stage to showcase the grandeur and glory of Beethoven’s mighty ‘Emperor’ Concerto – a work dedicated to the composer’s patron and friend, Archduke Rudolf. *Please note a change of programme from originally advertised

Jan Lisiecki plays Beethoven

Imagine a swelling river of sound; a musical voyage that begins amid the tranquillity of nature and ends in a surge of triumph.That’s Sibelius’s Second Symphony, and there are few experiences in classical music more invigorating, or more stirring. For the young Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, Sibelius is a national hero, and Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki takes centre stage to showcase the grandeur and glory of Beethoven’s mighty ‘Emperor’ Concerto – a work dedicated to the composer’s patron and friend, Archduke Rudolf.

Thomas Quasthoff Quartet

When Thomas Quasthoff brings his new programme »For You« to life, he is above all one thing – absolutely authentic. Quasthoff has a sure sense for the most suitable style of what he sings. This applies to opera arias, art and folk songs as well as jazz, pop and soul. He has long since proven that, as a classical singer with an enormously versatile bass-baritone, he can also master genres rooted in the African-American musical tradition. And so what one so appreciates about Quasthoff as a recital singer also becomes a golden rule for everything else. How the bass-baritone lives up to his claim of really touching people with his voice is made clear by the enthusiastic audience reactions and the praises of the press. He is joined by three excellent jazz musicians: Dieter Ilg is characterised by his electrifying vitality, intelligent curiosity, technical brilliance and total devotion to the moment. Wolfgang Haffner is Germany’s best-known drummer – with an unparalleled career that extends far beyond jazz. Simon Oslender is the youngest member of the band – once entering the scene as a »prodigy on the Hammond organ«, the now 24-year-old is considered one of the »rising stars« of the German music scene on piano, organ and keyboards.

Micah Thomas Trio

»Music is a meditative practice for me. I attach importance to the main focus of always being present.« This is how Micah Thomas describes the relationship to his purpose in life. The 27-year-old is currently one of the most sought-after pianists on the New York jazz scene, widely admired for his understanding of harmonies and his technical brilliance. His first trio album »Reveal« with Dean Torrey and Kayvon Gordon radiates casual aplomb and detailed knowledge of jazz history, which the trio expands on with sparkling virtuosity in its collective. »Reveal is a type of aesthetic declaration that definitively lays the foundation for a unique and innovative ›art of the trio‹,« writes the press and thereby raises the bar for future performances and albums. Micah Thomas, for whom music is a mouthpiece and a very natural form of expression, has so far always exceeded such expectations of his playing. As a result, he has already impressed audiences at the Elbphilharmonie twice: as part of the Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet and as part of the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, which you could also experience in the Fast Lane series. All good things come in threes? In this case, hopefully even more!