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Laeiszhalle, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
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Michelangelo String Quartet
»Man is only completely a man when he plays.« Friedrich Schiller already understood it, and Ensemble Resonanz and Leila Josefowicz provide the proof: they light-footedly dismantle their world, reassemble it and take their audience on a boundless adventure of discovery. The Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall turns into a playground of creativity: from Leoš Janáček to Pauline Oliveros, they arrange a diverse musical collage, unhinge Bach, pile up the building blocks of life with Felix Mendelssohn and awaken the homo ludens in the audience. A new work by the playful Dai Fujikura lets the soloists soar like birds in spirals over the musical playing field, while the orchestra also picks up momentum. A concert becomes a thrilling carousel ride!
Clear the stage for the U30 generation! Once again this season, musically talented »Jungs & Deerns« from northern Germany will have the opportunity to present themselves together with the Hamburg Camerata in the exquisite Recitall Hall of the Elbphilharmonie. Youthful energy, fresh motivation and a certain amount of positive excitement make these concerts a particularly intense musical experience.
The chamber orchestra »Kammersolisten Berlin« was founded in April 2015. The members of this ensemble have known each other for many years and have performed together in a wide variety of formations around the world. Individually, each member is either an outstanding soloist, chamber musician or orchestral musician from one of Berlin’s various major orchestras (Konzerthaus Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, etc.). The friends and musicians play freely, drive each other to peak performances and thus arouse enthusiasm and emotions in the audience. The international line-up provides an unrivalled diversity of ideas, with a repertoire that includes works from the baroque, classical, romantic and modern eras.
The chamber orchestra »Kammersolisten Berlin« was founded in April 2015. The members of this ensemble have known each other for many years and have performed together in a wide variety of formations around the world. Individually, each member is either an outstanding soloist, chamber musician or orchestral musician from one of Berlin’s various major orchestras (Konzerthaus Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, etc.). The friends and musicians play freely, drive each other to peak performances and thus arouse enthusiasm and emotions in the audience. The international line-up provides an unrivalled diversity of ideas, with a repertoire that includes works from the baroque, classical, romantic and modern eras.
»I have now found solace.« With these words, Johannes Brahms put the core of his monumental »German Requiem« in a nutshell: the deceased do not take centre stage as usual, but the bereaved. They are to find solace through the moving music and can cope with their grief. Brahms knew how to utilise choir and orchestra extremely effectively and created both deeply sad and devastating moments as well as comforting ones: in this way, life and death manifest in all their aspects. With French conductor Raphaël Pichon, a proficient expert and avowed fan of German repertoire now brings Brahms’ Requiem to the Elbphilharmonie. The ensemble Pygmalion, formed by him, assist him once more. This ensemble is well versed in period performance and its concerts are captivating due to their particular transparency and intimacy. Soprano Sabine Devieilhe and baritone Stéphane Degout also perform the solo parts. And Pichon also draws attention to Brahms’ musical roots: this way, we hear early baroque a-cappella music before the »German Requiem« – a tradition with which Brahms had also intensively grappled.
The Symphoniker Hamburg’s second VielHarmonie concert will live up to its name, as there will be plenty of harmony to discover. When the composer Caroline Shaw was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013, she was not only one of only a few women, but also the youngest ever winner at the age of just 30. She originally wrote her »Entr’acte« for quartet as a witty reaction to hearing Haydn’s last completed quartet, but in 2014 she adapted the work for string orchestra in the version heard in this concert. William Walton’s Violin Concerto was premiered in December 1939 by Jascha Heifetz, who had commissioned the work and to whom it is dedicated. The English composer then revised it in 1944. The concerto opens with the slowest movement, the first theme of which is labelled »sognando« (dreaming). In the second movement, presto, a tarantella tells of an experience Walton had while composing in 1938, when he was actually bitten by a tarantula in Ravello, Italy. He himself smilingly calls this passage »rather gaga, I can say, and of dubious decency«. The rondo finale finally brings romantic-expressive expressiveness and brilliant virtuosity to a climax.
Formed in 2019, after a few successful competitions, the career of this young ensemble is heading sharply upwards: »This quartet should very soon be one of the most famous quartets of present times,« it says in a review of their first album. At the Elbphilharmonie, the four musicians can prove all their qualities because their programme passes through over 200 years of music history and, consequently, calls for the greatest flexibility. In the artificial language of Esperanto, »Leonkoro« means »Lionheart«, a reference to the famous children’s book of the same name by Astrid Lindgren about two courageous brothers. Because this quartet is framed on first violin and cello by brothers Jonathan and Lukas Schwarz. Together with violinist Amelie Wallner and violist Mayu Konoe, they studied under string quartet luminaries, such as Heime Müller from the Artemis Quartet and Günter Pichler from the Alban Berg Quartett. And did so successfully: within the briefest time, they scooped up prizes at the International String Quartet Competition at London’s Wigmore Hall, at the Concours International de Quatuor in Bordeaux and the MERITO String Quartet Award. In their programme, they firstly contrast the final, very contemplative quartet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the youthful light-hearted early work of Paul Hindemith. Both composers were on the viola at their respective premiere – and so were still able to apply the finishing touch to their music. Mendelssohn gave the notes for his quartet to his brother, a passionate cellist, for his birthday. He was quite obviously happy about this and performed the work very successfully. To this day, the second movement, a true »song without words«, and the third movement, which evokes dancing fairies from Mendelssohn’s »A Midsummer Night’s Dream, are particularly delightful«.
France and Germany – today, these two countries are best friends. The long-standing rivalry between them has, however, not only led to many a disagreement in politics. Even in the field of organ music, they took different paths for a long time: in France, people celebrated sound and tone colour; in Germany, virtuosity and counterpoint. Karol Mossakowski showcases the best of both worlds: a sedate organ symphony in the style of Widor, sound magic in the style of Fauré and visionary music in the style of Alain – all of them first-rate musical gems. Fauré clad the myth of Pelléas and Mélisande in subtle, highly sensitive sounds, Alain paved the way for the 21st century with his organ music widening the musical horizon. Not for nothing are the moving Litanies on the foundation of human existence some of the most widely played organ works of all for instance. Mendelssohn and Liszt are bywords for the German Romantic school. The variations sérieuses as well as the Mephisto Waltzes had originally been written for piano, but the art of arrangement has a long tradition especially in organ circles. What is not playable will be made playable – that is the motto here. After all, compared with pianists, organists also have two feet and an enormous pool of tonal colours at their disposal. Karol Mossakowski will also make use of this when he pursues another tradition cultivated by organists: improvisation. Here too, he is a true master of his trade.
Thinking of forests in the finale of Mendelssohn’s immortally beautiful Violin Concerto in E minor is a real recommendation inasmuch as the fairies, will-o’-the-wisps and kind-hearted gnomes romping about in it are comparatively harmless creatures. Composed between 1838 and 1844 for his friend Ferdinand David, concertmaster of Leipzig’s Gewandhausorchester, it was intended to be a brilliant piece (»stilo moltissimo concertantissimo«). Mendelssohn joked back that the soloist’s entire first movement would consist of a single high E. In the end, the two Hamburg natives were extremely happy with the result.
The Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, founded in 1964, is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Since its inception, the foundation has been dedicated to promoting young talent in music and composition. It supports talented musicians with scholarships, prizes and concert appearances that offer them valuable stage experience. The foundation is actively committed to musical education and the development of artistic talent. Former scholarship holders Anna Vinnitskaya and Alexey Stadler will perform at the ceremony. The evening will be accompanied by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In addition, the RITTER Prize will be awarded to the young conductor Aurel Dawidiuk.
The Tölzer Knabenchor, founded in 1956 by Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden in the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz, has been one of the most famous and sought-after boys’ choirs in the world for over six decades and performs more than 150 concerts and operas a year. The choir’s repertoire covers all areas of choral literature from the Baroque to the present day, with a particular focus on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Soloists from the Tölz Boys’ Choir take on the important boys’ roles in the world’s famous opera houses. Over the past decades, the Tölzer Knabenchor has worked with many important conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Karl Böhm, Pierre Boulez, Sergiu Celibidache, Riccardo Chailly, John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Herbert von Karajan, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Seji Ozawa, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Carlo Rizzi, François-Xavier Roth, Georg Solti, Robin Ticciati and Christian Thielemann. Concert tours have taken the Tölzer Knabenchor to almost every country in Europe, Russia, Israel, China, Japan, Korea and the USA.The choir is regularly invited to perform at the Salzburg Festival, the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Shanghai Baroque Festival. It performs in the world’s major concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Vienna Musikverein, Carnegie Hall and Suntory Hall. The choir has received numerous awards for its recordings on all major labels, including the German Record Award, the French Record Award, the Diapason d’Or and the ECHO Klassik of the German Phono Academy Berlin. The choir was nominated for a Grammy Award for its participation in the complete recording of all cantatas by J.S. Bach with Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
People flock together. Lovers, the curious, the odd fantasist. A tingling community. High-percentage stimulation in the hall too. Rimsky-Korsakov’s enchanting orchestral poem Scheherazade. Anna Clyne’s turbulent »Fractured Time«. A wave runs through the crowd. Some even dance. The orchestra strikes a chord. The clapping, the rhythm, a magical moment. Everyone together. Everyone now. Everything mega, everything KULT.
The great opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, who opens this concert evening, called his only string quartet »a gimmick«. Legend has it that he composed his quartet purely as a pastime, as rehearsals for performances of his »Aida« in Naples had come to a standstill. As so often, Verdi was understating the case. The French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris continues the gimmick with a spontaneous improvisation on Verdi’s operatic themes. In the rest of the programme, Katsaris plays romances, songs and fantasies by Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt. Cyprien Katsaris is a piano virtuoso with a very special affinity for Liszt and has contributed greatly to a new view of Liszt’s piano works throughout his life. In 2023, he received the Franz Liszt Prize of Honour, awarded by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the Neue Liszt Stiftung.
The innately humanistic sound ideal of Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach meets the youthful, romantic gesture of Felix Mendelssohn: the 4th Academy Concert continues the series of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos that began with the 1st Academy Concert. It is music so popular and widely admired that it was launched into space on a data disk aboard the »Voyager 2« space probe in 1977. Now it is back in Hamburg. His Symphony No. 6, nicknamed the »Hamburg Symphony« is a clear sign that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach has no reason to be disconcerted by any overbearing legacy of his famous father.
Since its founding in 1997, the SAP Symphony Orchestra has evolved into a cultural and beneficial beacon of SAP SE known far beyond the Rhine-Neckar region. In addition to classical orchestral music, the ensemble has also devoted itself intensively to film music and symphonic rock arranged especially for the orchestra. The portfolio is rounded off by children’s concerts, in which even the youngest are introduced to the beauty of music. Highlights of the collaboration with international artists were the concerts with Rolando Villazon in 2012, with star pianist Lang Lang in 2022 and with Anastacia in 2024. This will now be followed by a collaboration with another exceptional artist – Ray Chen. Violinist and online personality, Ray Chen redefines what it means to be a classical musician in the 21st century. With a global reach that enhances and inspires a new classical audience, Ray Chen’s remarkable musicianship transmits to millions around the world, reflected through his engagements both online and with the foremost orchestras and concert halls around the world. Beyond the performing arts, his work has also contributed to philanthropy, popular culture and educational technology.
The title of the evening alludes to Proust’s novel cycle »In Search of Lost Time«. The sonata by the fictional composer Vinteuil, whose »little phrase« reminds the novel’s character Charles Swann of his love Odette de Crécy, poses the riddle of who the real-life inspiration behind the Vinteuil Sonata is. The name César Franck is often mentioned. Whether the little phrase really comes from Franck’s violin sonata will remain forever unclear. What is certain, however, is that Franck created one of the most beautiful works in the genre with his Sonata in A major.
»It’s a stroke of genius. This music is immortal,« Anne-Sophie Mutter enthused about Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto back in 2009. The star violinist is not alone in this opinion: since its premiere, the captivating work has delighted performers and audiences alike – no wonder, given the abundance of musical beauty it offers. At first, Gustav Mahler could only dream of such a sensational success for his Fifth Symphony: »The Fifth is a cursed work. No one understands it,« he grumbled, disappointed about the lack of understanding that the monumental work was met with everywhere. However, it is also possible that Mahler was simply overtaxing the listening habits of the time. Today, Mahler’s Fifth is his most popular symphony and it is impossible to imagine the repertoire of concert halls around the world without it. And when a world-class orchestra like the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra offers a performance, nothing stands in the way of a great concert evening!
In this concert, clarinettist David Orlowsky is both soloist and composer. Together with ensemble reflektor, he premieres his own clarinet concerto »Shadow Dancer«, which was inspired by a quote from the famous psychiatrist C. G. Jung: »Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle.«
To mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, the exile orchestra MRIYA will perform an extraordinary concert with works by German and Ukrainian composers. The ensemble was founded in March 2022 by professional musicians who had to flee to Germany to escape the horrors of the Russian war of aggression and, under the direction of violinist Kateryna Suprun, founded an ensemble that grew into the MRIYA exile orchestra with the support of the Hamburg-based funding organisation Culture Connects e. V.. With around 80 concerts in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the orchestra has established an excellent reputation.
Nomen est omen: true to its name, Venice’s legendary opera house, the Teatro La Fenice (Italian for phoenix), rose from the ashes in 2003 after a devastating fire. Since its reconstruction, the theatre has once again stood for splendour and radiance as well as impressive acoustics. The theatre is also home to a renowned orchestra, with which Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss worked. It gave important Verdi premieres, has a special history and is now bringing some of this aura to the north. Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is one of the most popular works of all time, rich in beguiling melodies, full of romantic intensity and rousing in its gesture. Accordingly, the solo part demands highly expressive playing, and this is precisely what the violinist Vikram Francesco Sedona, who trained partly in Venice, is known for. Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 forms the crowning finale with its sacred-sounding grandeur, monumental Wagnerian references and late-Romantic, smoldering expressiveness. »Bruckner’s music seems to me to breathe inexhaustibly. At the same time, his constantly evolving sounds allow flexible arcs to be spanned – Romantic, grand music,« says conductor Markus Stenz.
The chamber choir hamburgVOKAL was founded in 2010 by its director Matthias Mensching and has quickly developed into one of the leading choirs in northern Germany. The young ensemble is dedicated to a broad spectrum of choral literature from early music to contemporary works. The choir has won several awards at competitions. Most recently, in 2018, it took part in the 10th German Choir Competition in Freiburg with »outstanding success« and won 2nd prize. The ensemble regularly accepts invitations to festivals and concert series, such as the »Stunde der Kirchenmusik« at the Stiftskirche Stuttgart and the Niedersächsische Musiktage. Concerts regularly take the ensemble to the Elbphilharmonie and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, most recently in November 2023 with a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor. A radio production with contemporary choral music was produced for NDR.
With this recital, Hamburg pianist Florian Heinisch returns to the Elbphilharmonie once again after acclaimed concerts in 2019 and 2023. The programme is a tribute to the enormous stylistic diversity that has made the musical city of Hamburg a unique force in the world of classical music to this day. »I may have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg« – this statement by John Lennon about his beginnings with the Beatles in the Hanseatic city also fits many biographies and careers in classical music.
The Thomanerchor Leipzig looks back on over 800 years of history. Composers from all eras have written works for the famous choir. The motets by Johann Sebastian Bach, the most famous St Thomas’ cantor, are part of the choir’s core repertoire. In this concert, the choir presents a musical cross-section of all eras, with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Samuel Scheidt, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and contemporary motets by Ivo Antognini, Ko Matsushitas and John Rutter.
The intercultural Hamburg Stage Ensemble, which is characterised by its energetic and precise ensemble playing and has already performed in renowned venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, invites the audience to another concert in the Elbphilharmonie’s Recital Hall. Often played and yet always reinterpreted – the Hamburg Stage Ensemble’s joy of playing Antonio Vivaldi’s »Four Seasons« with the outstanding soloist and artistic director Arsen Zorayan is captivating. In the second part of the concert, the Hamburg Stage Ensemble takes the audience on a journey through European classical music. The programme includes works by Mozart, Hasse and Mendelssohn.
The Landesjugendorchester Hamburg (LJO Hamburg) is a select orchestra of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and has been an integral part of the young music scene for over 55 years. The patron of the ensemble is the First Mayor, Dr Peter Tschentscher. In its summer concert, the LJO Hamburg will perform for the first time with guest conductor Bar Avni.
Kurt Weill composed his Second Symphony in exile in France and the USA, having fled the National Socialists in Germany. In terms of style, he drew inspiration from the great German-speaking composers of the past, which is often interpreted as melancholic retrospection. Around 100 years earlier, a 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn visited the ruins of an abbey in Edinburgh and wrote to his parents about the experience: »Everything around is broken and mouldering and the bright sky shines in. I believe I have found the beginning of my Scottish symphony.« After this formative journey, almost 13 years would pass in which the musical memories of the country and its people matured into one of Mendelssohn’s most important symphonic works, his Symphony No. 3 in A minor.
The Collegium Musicum has a long tradition in the German music scene. The first was founded in 1660; Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach continued the tradition in Leipzig and Hamburg. The Collegium Musicum Hamburg – comprised of David Movsisyan and his colleagues – is a strong believer of reinvention. That’s why audiences can always expect the ensemble in different formations and repertoire from across all eras in its music programme.
The Felix Mendelssohn Jugendorchester (MJO) ends its 50th anniversary season with this concert and starts into the future with »AufWind«. The evening begins with one of the most famous works by Felix Mendelssohn, who was born in Hamburg 225 years ago. Although the wedding march is not played, the overture to the 17-year-old’s Midsummer Night’s Dream shows the fresh wind with which the young Felix sailed into his musical career. This is followed by perhaps the most famous concerto for flute and orchestra by French composer Jacques Ibert. Written in Paris a good 100 years ago, it is full of esprit and charm. The soloist is Nane Schulz, who has been playing in the orchestra since she was 10 years old. Honoured with many national prizes, she is sure to carry her breath into an outstanding career. This year’s great jubilarian is Anton Bruckner. In his marvellous 4th Symphony, the »Romantic«, the brass players in particular will generate a lot of wind to create the monumental blocks of sound in front of you. Reduced-price tickets cost € 15 and are available to young people under 30, the unemployed, welfare recipients, the severely disabled and pensioners. Wheelchair users and accompanying persons can obtain tickets directly from the organiser. Please contactinfo@theyoungclassx.de or 040 414 334 270.