ConcertPulse
Mandelring Quartett / Roland Glassl
Laeiszhalle, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Mandelring Quartet
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Mandelring Quartet
Michelangelo String Quartet
This recital opens with Bach's trio sonatas for violin and harpsichord, highlighting the harpsichord's novel equality. Schubert's C-Major Fantasy for violin and piano, written for Josef Slavík, challenged audiences with its length and free form. Sibelius's Nocturne from "Belshazzar's Feast" follows Leschanah's palace dialogue with the stars. Saint-Saëns's first violin sonata, announced with humor, became a hit. Kroll's "Banjo and Fiddle" captures American folk music and gained popularity through Jascha Heifetz.
Nuria Rial is a soprano singer.
The text refers to the Ensemble of the New Philharmonic Hamburg, a German orchestra.
When English King Charles II saw the sumptuously staged opera »Psyche« by Jean-Baptiste Lully at the French court of »Sun King« Louis XIV in 1671, he wanted to bring a similar spectacle to his London home. This was accomplished in 1675 and the semi-opera »Psyche« by Matthew Locke with large orchestra, singing, drama, ballet, colourful costumes and specially built stage machinery underwent its premiere as the first of its kind in England. At the Laeiszhalle, the handsome neo-baroque ambience now serves as the setting for a top-class concert performance with Sébastien Daucé and his Ensemble Correspondances. The love story between the ancient god Cupid and the human princess Psyche does not conform to their social standing: it must overcome many obstacles, the couple goes from heaven to hell and back again to finally receive a blessing from the other gods and goddesses. In typical baroque opera fashion, en route in all kinds of subplots the lovers encounter the entire spectrum of mythical figures – gods, demigods, furies, demons, cyclopes and many more romp about in the five acts of the plot. Matthew Locke and his librettist also added some comedic elements to the French original. Originally, the flamboyantly instrumented orchestra had to play several dances and interludes by Giovanni Battista Draghi, which have not been passed down. Instead, Sébastien Daucé inserts instrumental movements by Matthew Locke and shortens some of the spoken passages to give greater emphasis to the highly emotional arias. This produces a fascinating, entertaining insight into the origins of English opera, brilliantly played and of timeless beauty.
Violinist Angelika Bachmann from Salut Salon and pianist Professor Jacques Ammon invite to the annual »Concert of the Children« in the Grand Hall of Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. The outstanding young prizewinners of the Hamburg Instrumental Competition will perform. The virtuoso skills of the children and young people, the varied programme and the warm concert atmosphere make the Children’s Concert a uniquely moving experience every year. Hamburg music legend Rolf Zuckowski will once again be there as a special guest, and as everyone knows, he rarely sings alone. And for the grand finale, everyone plays and sings together and throws flowers to the audience. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Francis Poulenc, the true joker of the French artistic association »Groupe des Six«, created a precious treasure of five works for the woodwinds – the sextet, a trio and a sonata each for flute, clarinet and bassoon. With the sparkling Sextuor for piano and winds, a showpiece for the »musical prose« sought by the »Six«, he thrusts the audience right into the pulsating life of his home city of Paris. The three-movement piece was completed in 1932, but thoroughly revised in 1939 for the performance with Poulenc himself at the piano. At the beginning, it sounds like the Grands Boulevards, everything is noisy, running, honking, shouting and whirling, and the woodwinds are immediately allowed to bring their entire arsenal of modern acrobatics into play. The middle movement is more idyllic, before the fast section suddenly seems to be a fairground hustle and bustle. The work concludes with a hymn-like declaration of love to the metropolis on the Seine.
Chamber Orchestra of the New Philharmonic Hamburg
Simply Quartet
The musical ensemble Fado ao centro presents its audience with urban and emotional fado from the Portuguese university city of Coimbra – a city with its very special fado tradition. The male line-up shines with its differently tuned guitars, which radiate warm tone colours and penetrate deep into the hearts of the listeners. But the passion for their music is best described by the members of Fado ao centro themselves: »We carry our genuine love for fado deep in our souls and want to share this with other people – whether with other musicians, local fans or visitors who may never have heard of Coimbra Fado.« Fado is mainly associated with the Portuguese capital Lisbon. However, the university city of Coimbra has its very own fado tradition. The most decisive difference is the exclusively male line-up with guitars in different settings.
They have only just celebrated their 25th anniversary – and are still going, stronger than ever. The Bennewitz Quartet, made up of four gentlemen from the Czech Republic, has established a superb reputation in the quarter of a century it has been performing. Its members are regarded as the cultural ambassadors of their homeland, revered for their warm, homogeneous sound. Now they have invited Veronika Hagen, violist in the legendary Hagen Quartet, to expand their line-up into a quintet. Their concert promises a programme full of contrasts, fluctuating between idylls of nature, the innate lifeforce, and moments of farewell. Antonín Dvořák spent his first summer in the USA not amid the hustle and bustle of New York City, where he ran the conservatory, but surrounded by the tranquillity of Iowa. A Czech community had formed in the small town of Spitville and they invited the composer to stay with them. He must have heard not only the sounds of the »New World«, but also plenty of familiar Bohemian music. At its premiere the following winter, his quintet even transported New Yorkers to this rural summer idyll, and proved an instant success. »Our will for culture was just as great as our will to exist!« wrote the Polish-Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann, recounting his time in the Theresienstadt ghetto. His third string quartet was composed there: gripping music full of a desire to survive. Johannes Brahms, by contrast, wrote his string quintet as a farewell to composing and perhaps even to life itself. Though he would go on to compose other works, his quintet is full of gentle melancholy, a look back over Brahms’ legacy.
Angels playing music were an extremely popular motif in the Renaissance – often, the heavenly figures sing accompanied by the cornet, an early brass instrument. Cornet virtuoso Bruce Dickey and soprano Hana Blažíková now trace the celestial tonal affinity of voice and instrument, accompanied by the Breathtaking Collective, with such enchantingly beautiful and highly virtuoso music of the 17th century. Bruce Dickey has completely dedicated himself to rediscovering the cornet. Today, largely disappeared from concert life, the wooden, in most cases crescent-shaped, instrument with a mouthpiece similar to those on trumpets was incredibly popular in the 16th and 17th century, especially in combination with singing. Like a second voice, the cornet ornaments the clear soprano of early music star Hana Blažíková, gets into sensitive dialogue and vies for the most splendid coloraturas and flourishes. The singer and cornetist, both of whom are regularly on stage with the greats of historical performance practice, such as Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman and Jordi Savall, have put together a fascinating selection of secular and sacred pieces for »On the Breath of Angels«. Accompanied by strings, theorbo, organ and harpsichord, dramatic operatic arias and intimate movements from motets sound. »Breathtaking listening experiences!« enthuses a reviewer of the related album. After this concert, one wonders how and why the cornet could have fallen so much out of fashion.
Belcea Quartet
As a musician deeply rooted in the Arab tradition and at the same time open to various neighbouring worlds, Anouar Brahem has never ceased to forge new connections in his elegantly fused music, which combines the richness of his ancestral culture, the formal sophistication of Western chamber music and the expressive freedom of modern jazz.
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.
Over the past 15 years, the Ministry of Schools and Vocational Training has opened this door for 50,000 primary school children in 69 schools in Hamburg: from getting to know the instruments for the first time and trying out how to produce sound, to weekly lessons in small groups and presentations at school and beyond, the JeKi children have immersed themselves in the world of instrumental playing. As with seasoned musicians, listening, imitating, trying things out, helping each other, showing, practising, playing together, extra rehearsals and performing have become part of their lives. JeKi enables all children to take part, regardless of their family background, because it is free of charge. This gives every child in the JeKi schools the chance to climb the first steps on an instrument of their choice. 15 years of JeKi are truly a reason to be proud and to celebrate in style, and the Laeiszhalle provides the festive setting. The varied programme includes songs and pieces from different genres, which are presented by individual JeKi groups or jointly by the anniversary orchestra across schools.
The program will be announced at a later date.
While in Lichtental, a suburb of Baden-Baden, Brahms got the inspiration for the first movement of his Horn Trio during a morning walk. He later showed a friend where the nature sounds sparked this inspiration. Brahms learned to play the horn as a child, and it features prominently in his music, particularly his symphonies, and his mother loved his horn playing. The Horn Trio's Adagio movement, written shortly after his mother's death, is thought to reflect this event. Brahms composed Serenades Op. 11 and 16 while working as a piano teacher in Detmold, during which he also studied Haydn and Mozart. He had initially intended to write a lighter piece, but his evolving symphonic ideas led to richer instrumentation and broader development, as detailed by Max Kalbeck.
To mark the 150th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke’s birth, Angelica Fleer & Richard Schönherz are bringing their successful and multi-award-winning poetry project 2025 to the stage. The anniversary tour is entitled »so viel Himmel« and the ensemble includes Nina Hoger, Dietmar Bär (Cologne’s »Tatort«, among others) and other guests.