Violinist and conductor Bernhard Forck is a specialist for early music and conducts the DSO concert on January 8 with soprano Anna Prohaska. Together with the members of the DSO's Ferenc Fricsay Academy, he conducted a two-day workshop on historical performance practice in January. The result can be experienced on January 22 at the Alte Pfarrkirche Pankow.
Max Volbers, photo: Cezary Zych; Orkiestra Kore, photo: Grzesiek Mart The instrument inevitably associated with Antonio Vivaldi is the violin. This association is natural, since he played exclusively on string instruments and it was to the violin that he entrusted the solo part in the vast majority of his concertos. However, the catalogue of Vivaldi’s complete works also includes solo flute concertos, three of which are specified as being for flautino. It is impossible to be sure exactly which instrument the composer had in mind, but the compass of the Concerto in G major, RV 443 allows it to be performed on sopranino recorder. As with Vivaldi, the most important instrument for Georg Philipp Telemann was the violin. However, he also had experience of playing wind instruments. After the death of his father, he studied keyboard instruments with organist Benedikt Christiani and independently mastered the recorder, violin and zither. Vivaldi’s concertos were certainly familiar to Telemann, but in his 1718 autobiography the German composer indicated that he was not a great admirer of the concerto genre. Telemann’s reservations were probably not so much about the genre itself as about the exaggerated virtuosity. Johann Friedrich Fasch must also have become acquainted with these works during his time in Prague as court composer to Count Wenzel Morzin. Fasch had taught himself composition by studying the works of his friend Telemann, who for Fasch was the greatest master. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 3: Both historical eras and cultural centres are often associated with outstanding individuals who represent the art created in a given place and time. However, confining ourselves to the individual perspective often distorts the full picture of the artistic reality of the time. For Baroque Italy, such a point of reference is certainly Antonio Vivaldi. Although he was an outstanding violinist, he also wrote concertato works not intended for string instruments, as did another violinist, Georg Philipp Telemann, who today remains in the shadow of the great Baroque luminaries from Saxony – Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Unlike Vivaldi, Telemann was a multi-instrumentalist, also experienced in playing wind and keyboard instruments. Francesco Landini can be considered a symbol of Florence, and also of the entire Italian output of the Trecento. He too delighted his contemporaries with his performance art, specialising in organ. The most outstanding composer of the Polish Republic of the first half of the fifteenth century known to us today was Nicolaus of Radom. Very little is known about his life, but he can certainly be associated with his activities in early Jagiellonian Cracow. Daniel Laskowski
“Traveler, there is no road. You make your own path as you walk.” Inscribed on the wall of a Spanish monastery, these words were discovered by Luigi Nono in the 1980s and became a kind of motto for his late works. The search for an unattainable music of the future also infuses his penultimate score La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura, composed in 1988–9. Carolin Widmann and the SWR Experimentalstudio bring the piece to the Pierre Boulez Saal. Widmann complements Nono’s meditation on space and sound with works from the 18th and 21st centuries by Telemann, George Benjamin, and Swiss composer Helena Winkelman.
Beguiling baroque expressions of loss and longing tempered with Bohemian lamentation accompany an intriguing world premiere that originates from a chance find in an Irish peat bog.
André Lislevand, photo: Cezary Zych; Orkiestra Kore, photo: Grzesiek Mart According to eighteenth-century accounts, the French violinist Jean-Baptiste Volumier, as concertmaster of the Dresden court orchestra, turned it into one of the best ensembles in Europe. After Volumier’s death in 1728, the position of concertmaster was taken over by violin virtuoso Johann Georg Pisendel. Before obtaining this position, Pisendel had developed his violin skills partly in Venice, where he studied with and befriended Antonio Vivaldi. Their friendship resulted in mutual dedications of works, as well as Pisendel’s transcribing of Vivaldi’s compositions. He also transcribed works by other composers, such as Francesco Geminiani, whose Concerto Grosso, Op. 2 No. 2 he arranged as a Sonata à quattro. Pisendel’s talent was also appreciated by other composers (including Tomaso Albinoni), who dedicated works to Pisendel. He also passed on his outstanding skills as a teacher, and one of his most famous pupils was Johann Gottlieb Graun, composer of virtuoso concertos for viola da gamba that were also influenced by great virtuosos and were composed with the outstanding gambist Ludwig Christian Hesse in mind. Hesse, in turn, probably learned to play the gamba from his own father, Ernst Christian, who had previously studied in Paris with Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 4: If one were to assign a specific instrument to each country of particular importance on the musical scene of Baroque Europe, the viola da gamba would certainly fall to France. Such an attempt to find national connections to instruments was also made by the eighteenth-century gambist Hubert Le Blanc, who opened his treatise on the instrument with the statement: The Divine Intelligence, among its many gifts, has endowed mortals with Harmony. The violin fell to the Italians, the flute to the Germans, the harpsichord to the English, and the basse de viole to the French. Although the roots of the French school of gamba playing can be traced to England (the first chordal compositions were written there, and the English are credited with popularising the instrument on the Continent), it was in France that some of the instrument’s greatest virtuosos worked and its construction was perfected. Foreign musicians also trained in France, such as the German gambist Ernst Christian Hesse. One instrument related to the viola da gamba is the lute, and works for lute were taken as models for gamba compositions by Antoine Forqueray, among others, a musician contemporary of Marin Marais. In their time, the eminent lute player, theorist and guitarist Robert de Visée, who was also a gamba player, worked in the ensemble of King Louis XIV at Versailles, as Jean Rousseau mentions in one of his letters. The similarity between the gamba and the lute may also have been noticed by Johann Sebastian Bach, as is suggested by the aria ‘Komm süsses Kreuz’ from the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, in which the composer envisaged a solo part for viola da gamba. In the original version, however, the solo instrument there was the lute. Daniel Laskowski
Since 2010, ensembles of the Staatskapelle have been performing in the Bode Museum. The concerts, lasting just over an hour, take place in the Gobelin Hall and feature music from past centuries. Visitors can combine the concerts with other museum activities, such as an exhibition visit or a meal at the museum café.
The concert program "Mirrors" explores the same character from two mirroring perspectives. The arias depict key psychological moments of heroines like Agrippina and Cleopatra, set to music by Handel and Graun, among others. These works portray courageous, vulnerable, and passionate personalities. Soprano Jeanine De Bique, known for her bold performances, joins the specialist ensemble Concerto Köln in this musical exploration.
Les Arts Florissants, with co-director Paul Agnew, presents a programme of cantatas by Bach and his contemporaries, from which the audience will be invited to sing excerpts as an encore.
‘Queen of the Baroque violin’ Rachel Podger will lead and inspire the Bach Society with her violin. Instrumental fireworks sparked off by one of today’s best Baroque violinists.Queen of the Baroque violin“What Beethoven was to the symphony, Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli was to the concerto: a shining example who was known to all composers. In this programme, Rachel Podger shows how far Corelli’s influence extended; way beyond the borders of Italy, to France and Germany. Virtuoso music by composers like Handel and Lully, in which Podger and the instrumental ensemble will shine.
‘Queen of the Baroque violin’ Rachel Podger will lead and inspire the Bach Society with her violin. Instrumental fireworks sparked off by one of today’s best Baroque violinists.Queen of the Baroque violin“What Beethoven was to the symphony, Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli was to the concerto: a shining example who was known to all composers. In this programme, Rachel Podger shows how far Corelli’s influence extended; way beyond the borders of Italy, to France and Germany. Virtuoso music by composers like Handel and Lully, in which Podger and the instrumental ensemble will shine.
‘Queen of the Baroque violin’ Rachel Podger will lead and inspire the Bach Society with her violin. Instrumental fireworks sparked off by one of today’s best Baroque violinists.Queen of the Baroque violin“What Beethoven was to the symphony, Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli was to the concerto: a shining example who was known to all composers. In this programme, Rachel Podger shows how far Corelli’s influence extended; way beyond the borders of Italy, to France and Germany. Virtuoso music by composers like Handel and Lully, in which Podger and the instrumental ensemble will shine.
‘Queen of the Baroque violin’ Rachel Podger will lead and inspire the Bach Society with her violin. Instrumental fireworks sparked off by one of today’s best Baroque violinists.Queen of the Baroque violin“What Beethoven was to the symphony, Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli was to the concerto: a shining example who was known to all composers. In this programme, Rachel Podger shows how far Corelli’s influence extended; way beyond the borders of Italy, to France and Germany. Virtuoso music by composers like Handel and Lully, in which Podger and the instrumental ensemble will shine.
The album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd is one of the most popular musical works of the 20th century. It stayed almost sixteen years on the Billboard magazine list, which collects the two hundred most bought and listened to recordings in the USA in a given week. In the world of popular music, the British band remains unsurpassed. So perhaps a worthy rival should be sought in musical scores and concert performances? Who has not listened at least once to Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik or Beethoven's Fifth Symphony?Among the classical evergreens, however, Vivaldi's Four Seasons remains unrivalled. The popular violin concertos have received over a thousand recordings, one of which (Nigel Kennedy, 1986) has sold three million copies. They have also been played in at least five hundred films and undergone myriad remixes, the most popular of which is that by Max Richter, and perhaps the oldest was written by Bach himself. It is hard to believe that back in the 1940s, only some people remembered the then more than two-hundred-year-old works. Several pioneering recordings produced shortly afterwards made it clear to the world that no one could talk about feelings associated with atmospheric phenomena more beautifully than the Red Priest in the age of mass phonography and synthesisers. And yet, The Four Seasons is only just being rediscovered thanks to the exploration of historical performance. We wonder if the Red Priest would enjoy the A.D. 2025 version of {oh!} Orkiestra... Michał MendykConcert duration: approximately 90 minutes
Listening to live music is a wonderful experience. In the »Klangzeit« (Sound Time) concerts, you can close your eyes and escape everyday life for a moment. In the entertaining, hour-long concerts featuring the string players of Ensemble Resonanz, you can listen in a relaxed atmosphere, express yourself, sing along to well-known songs and move freely. Here, everyone can be themselves. This makes the format particularly suitable for people with dementia and their relatives. All venues are accessible.
Listening to live music is a wonderful experience. In the »Klangzeit« (Sound Time) concerts, you can close your eyes and escape everyday life for a moment. In the entertaining, hour-long concerts featuring the string players of Ensemble Resonanz, you can listen in a relaxed atmosphere, express yourself, sing along to well-known songs and move freely. Here, everyone can be themselves. This makes the format particularly suitable for people with dementia and their relatives. All venues are accessible.
Listening to live music is a wonderful experience. In the »Klangzeit« (Sound Time) concerts, you can close your eyes and escape everyday life for a moment. In the entertaining, hour-long concerts featuring the string players of Ensemble Resonanz, you can listen in a relaxed atmosphere, express yourself, sing along to well-known songs and move freely. Here, everyone can be themselves. This makes the format particularly suitable for people with dementia and their relatives. All venues are accessible.
Listening to live music is a wonderful experience. In the »Klangzeit« (Sound Time) concerts, you can close your eyes and escape everyday life for a moment. In the entertaining, hour-long concerts featuring the string players of Ensemble Resonanz, you can listen in a relaxed atmosphere, express yourself, sing along to well-known songs and move freely. Here, everyone can be themselves. This makes the format particularly suitable for people with dementia and their relatives. All venues are accessible.
Listening to live music is a wonderful experience. In the »Klangzeit« (Sound Time) concerts, you can close your eyes and escape everyday life for a moment. In the entertaining, hour-long concerts featuring the string players of Ensemble Resonanz, you can listen in a relaxed atmosphere, express yourself, sing along to well-known songs and move freely. Here, everyone can be themselves. This makes the format particularly suitable for people with dementia and their relatives. All venues are accessible.
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