ConcertPulse
(No Title)
"Beginnings"
Filters
"Beginnings"
Following his acclaimed appearance in a Young Singers Concert during last season’s Schubert Week, baritone Gerrit Illenberger returns to perform his first full recital at the Pierre Boulez Saal. He is joined by Gerold Huber, the longtime artistic partner of Illenberger’s teacher Christian Gerhaher. Together they present a musical portrait of fin-de-siècle Vienna and Paris through Debussy's settings of Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé, Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer, and Schoenberg's rarely heard and highly Romantic Op. 1, as well as songs by Johannes Brahms.
Martha Argerich speaks of Daniil Trifonov with astonishment: “He has everything and more – tenderness, but also a demonic quality. I’ve never heard anything like it.” To round off the year, the star pianist performs Johannes Brahms’ monumentally virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko. After the interval, the powerful and festive prelude from Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg follows. The concert concludes with two lavishly-orchestrated dance works by Richard Strauss of a contrasting nature: the charming waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier and Salome’s Dance, with its exhibitionistic, almost brutal sensuality.
Martha Argerich speaks of Daniil Trifonov with astonishment: “He has everything and more – tenderness, but also a demonic quality. I’ve never heard anything like it.” To round off the year, the star pianist performs Johannes Brahms’ monumentally virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko. After the interval, the powerful and festive prelude from Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg follows. The concert concludes with two lavishly-orchestrated dance works by Richard Strauss of a contrasting nature: the charming waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier and Salome’s Dance, with its exhibitionistic, almost brutal sensuality.
Martha Argerich speaks of Daniil Trifonov with astonishment: “He has everything and more – tenderness, but also a demonic quality. I’ve never heard anything like it.” To round off the year, the star pianist performs Johannes Brahms’ monumentally virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko. After the interval, the powerful and festive prelude from Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg follows. The concert concludes with two lavishly-orchestrated dance works by Richard Strauss of a contrasting nature: the charming waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier and Salome’s Dance, with its exhibitionistic, almost brutal sensuality.
Eduard Mörike's first poetry collection, published in 1838, drew the attention of composers like Schumann, Brahms, and Franz. Though they set few of his poems to music, their choices, including "Er ist's" and "An eine Äolsharfe," reflect their esteem for his lyrical quality. Even Wolfgang Rihm used Mörike's poetry in his 2009 "Zwei kleine Lieder."
No conductor leads this chamber orchestra. Two experienced and sought-after chamber musicians, soloists, and Eisler professors, violinist Ulf Wallin and cellist Claudio Bohórquez, rehearse the concert program alongside the students. In the annual "Play&Lead Concerts" at the Konzerthaus Berlin, teachers and the ensemble meticulously work on highly demanding pieces. This offers valuable work experience for young instrumental students.
Artist in Residence Seong-Jin Cho and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker unfold a panorama of Hungarian musical styles in this concert. Johannes Brahms was often inspired by Hungarian music in his works, for instance in the finale of his clarinet trio, which oscillates between deep emotion and serenity. The trio for violin, horn and piano, which the Hungarian György Ligeti wrote in homage to Brahms, is characterised by folk rhythms. The piano quintet by the young Béla Bartók, who would go on to revolutionise Hungarian music, is still very much rooted in the Romantic period. But even here – according to Seong-Jin Cho – you can sense “Bartók's musical future”.
The master class of chamber music.
1st prize Louis Spohr Competition. 1st prize International Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, 1st prize International Wolfgang Marschner Competition. 2nd prize International Queen Sophie Charlotte Competition.
The two pianos series
Following an acclaimed performance of Baroque repertoire last season, Isabelle Faust returns with a program that reveals a completely different side of her musical personality. Together with pianist Alexander Melnikov, a close collaborator since the beginning of her international career, she explores three large-scale Romantic sonatas by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann in a fascinating juxtaposition with exquisite miniatures by Webern and Kurtág.
Since 2010, ensembles from the Staatskapelle have been playing at the Bode Museum, a jewel in Berlin's museum landscape. Matinee concerts lasting just over an hour in the Gobelin Hall with music from past centuries can easily lead into further hours in the museum - for example, during an exhibition visit or a culinary finale in the stylish museum café.
A very special quartet comes to the Pierre Boulez Saal: Carolin Widmann, who will also be heard in a solo recital later this season, has invited fellow musicians Nils Mönkemeyer, Julian Steckel, and William Youn to present a colorful program. The four artists perform piano quartets by Johannes Brahms and Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu, who died in 1894 at the age of 24.
The Wilmersdorf Chamber Choir celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Together with pianist Philip Mayers, they present works from the 19th to 21st centuries in various instrumentations: mixed choir a cappella and with piano, as well as women's choir and solo singing with piano and piano solo. Hear about the fate of a water fairy, an elf, and the storm wind of menacing spirits, before concluding the evening with meditative sounds.
Joined by the Hagen Quartett, Jörg Widmann continues his concert series exploring the history of the clarinet quintet from its beginnings to the present day. Their performance is dedicated to one of the last works written by Johannes Brahms. In the concert’s first half, the legendary Austrian ensemble presents the A-major String Quartet by Robert Schumann, one of the young Brahms’s early supporters.
