ConcertPulse
Guest performance
Philharmonie Berlin, Main Auditorium (Berlin)
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On 2 wings
Chi-Chi Nwanoku was the only black woman to be a founding member and principal double bassist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 30 years. Convinced that diversity in classical music needs role models, she founded the revolutionary Chineke! Orchestra, the first orchestra consisting exclusively of black and ethnically diverse musicians, which is now celebrating its Berlin premiere at the Konzerthaus. Its concerts feature classical repertoire and works by black and ethnically diverse composers in equal measure. Discover Derrick Syke's “Prisms”, which brings together influences from the Balkans, Ghana and Hindu classical music, and the nature-loving spirituality of the “Concerto for Orchestra” by Brian Raphael Nabors, a church musician, keyboardist in an R&B band and classical music professor from the south of the USA. The young British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, sister of our current Artist in Residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason, will also be making her Konzerthaus debut.
Following its early heyday during the Baroque era, it took until the 20th century for the flute to be fully rediscovered as a solo instrument—thanks, in part, to works such as Prokofiev’s 1943 Sonata. Emmanuel Pahud and Yefim Bronfman also perform Carl Reinecke’s “Undine” Sonata, inspired by Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué’s eponymous fairy tale and one of the few 19th-century works of its kind, and an adaptation of Mozart’s Violin Sonata K. 378. Philippe Manoury’s solo piece Soubresauts, which is dedicated to Pahud, completes the program.
Recommended for children aged 5 and above. (In German)
A mysterious woman and two rival brothers competing for her love: Maurice Maeterlinck’s ambiguous Pelléas et Mélisande inspired Arnold Schönberg to write a tone poem in which he traces the love triangle in sensuous and expressive sound. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphonic Concerto for Violoncello makes a sharp contrast, with music that is at once relentless, motoric and lyrical. Alisa Weilerstein tackles the demanding solo part; the orchestra is not merely an accompanist, but a distinguished counterpart. Lahav Shani, chief conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, is on the podium.
A mysterious woman and two rival brothers competing for her love: Maurice Maeterlinck’s ambiguous Pelléas et Mélisande inspired Arnold Schönberg to write a tone poem in which he traces the love triangle in sensuous and expressive sound. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphonic Concerto for Violoncello makes a sharp contrast, with music that is at once relentless, motoric and lyrical. Alisa Weilerstein tackles the demanding solo part; the orchestra is not merely an accompanist, but a distinguished counterpart. Lahav Shani, chief conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, is on the podium.
A mysterious woman and two rival brothers competing for her love: Maurice Maeterlinck’s ambiguous Pelléas et Mélisande inspired Arnold Schönberg to write a tone poem in which he traces the love triangle in sensuous and expressive sound. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphonic Concerto for Violoncello makes a sharp contrast, with music that is at once relentless, motoric and lyrical. Alisa Weilerstein tackles the demanding solo part; the orchestra is not merely an accompanist, but a distinguished counterpart. Lahav Shani, chief conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, is on the podium.
The “most European” of America’s “Big Five” orchestras shuttles back and forth between the continents under its Principal Conductor Franz Welser-Möst: in America, John Adams takes inspiration from the curiosities of French Provence (“Guide to Strange Places”), while in Paris, Sergei Prokofiev is inspired by the industrial landscapes of America in his mighty Second Symphony.
From a young age, the brothers Erik, Ken and Mark Schumann were deeply absorbed by the subtleties of chamber music. Then, when they were joined by violist Veit Hertenstein, the Schumann Quartet launched an international career, garnering the highest praise for their “dazzling virtuosity” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). For their debut in our series, the quartet has chosen Mozart’s galant A major Quartet and the dark First Quartet by Prokofiev, influenced by Beethoven’s quartets. These will also be represented by the Op. 127 quartet, from Beethoven’s audacious late period.