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Sir Simon Rattle will once again conduct the BRSO in this year’s SZ Benefit Concert. Joining the orchestra and its Chief Conductor at this traditional event will be Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, one of the new international stars of classical music. A Berliner by choice, his playing achieves a natural balance between energy and virtuosity. He is a “perfect match” for Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, in which the composer assigned the soloist a new role (in contrast to the failed First): he holds the reins and initiates the musical narrative, is almost always active, dialogues with the orchestra, and drives the action forward.
Attracting around 8,000 visitors on site and considerably more via TV and radio, Klassik am Odeonsplatz is one of the highlights of every BRSO season. For this year’s program, Sir Simon Rattle has chosen excerpts from Wagner’s Walküre, of which Brahms probably would have approved. In his opinion, there were “wonderful things” in it, and said about one performance: “In the Second Act, I drink a glass of beer, deliberately lie down for half an hour, and afterwards I feel refreshed again.” Brahms wrote his Second Symphony during a summer holiday on Lake Wörthersee. It’s the perfect piece for a wonderful Munich open-air concert – possibly with a glass of beer to celebrate the new BRSO chief conductor’s first season.
The second part of our Brahms cycle, which Herbert Blomstedt, who is still in convalescence, unfortunately had to cancel, will be conducted by Simone Young. The Australian has been one of the most important conductors of our time for many decades. She regularly makes guest appearances at all leading opera houses and concert halls and will conduct the Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival for the first time this summer.
The second part of our Brahms cycle, which Herbert Blomstedt, who is still in convalescence, unfortunately had to cancel, will be conducted by Simone Young. The Australian has been one of the most important conductors of our time for many decades. She regularly makes guest appearances at all leading opera houses and concert halls and will conduct the Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival for the first time this summer.
Unfortunately, Herbert Blomstedt had to cancel his Brahms cycle due to illness. Now we will experience the complete programme of the four symphonies with two different guests on the podium. Thomas Hengelbrock, who has already realised many exciting programmes with the BRSO, will conduct the first part with Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2. Brahms’ struggle for his first symphonic work, which the scrupulous composer only presented to the public at the age of 43, is legendary. In line with the high expectations, Brahms finally presented a monumental work with a serious, pathetically coloured mood with his C minor Symphony. After that the Second Symphony in D major followed just one year later, which has a completely different character: Due to its cheerful, idyllic tone, it was also referred to as Brahms’ “Pastoral”.
Unfortunately, Herbert Blomstedt had to cancel his Brahms cycle due to illness. Now we will experience the complete programme of the four symphonies with two different guests on the podium. Thomas Hengelbrock, who has already realised many exciting programmes with the BRSO, will conduct the first part with Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2. Brahms’ struggle for his first symphonic work, which the scrupulous composer only presented to the public at the age of 43, is legendary. In line with the high expectations, Brahms finally presented a monumental work with a serious, pathetically coloured mood with his C minor Symphony. After that the Second Symphony in D major followed just one year later, which has a completely different character: Due to its cheerful, idyllic tone, it was also referred to as Brahms’ “Pastoral”.
The BRSO welcomes Maxim Emelyanychev, one of the most fascinating talents of the young generation of conductors, to its podium for the first time. Trained by the legendary Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Emelyanychev began his conducting career in his native Russia, while at the same time attracting attention as an extraordinary pianist – with CD recordings of Mozart sonatas, for example, or playing the fortepiano in Teodor Currentzis’ Da Ponte cycle. Since 2013 he has led the highly successful Italian Baroque ensemble Il pomo d’oro, and since 2019 he has also led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has made highly acclaimed recordings with both ensembles. For his BRSO debut, Emelyanychev has put together an attractive Romantic program in which one can expect a fresh approach inspired by the music of the Classical and Baroque periods. This is also in line with violinist Isabelle Faust’s approach – especially for the Brahms concerto, in which she pursues the ideal of clarity, transparency and lightness.
The BRSO welcomes Maxim Emelyanychev, one of the most fascinating talents of the young generation of conductors, to its podium for the first time. Trained by the legendary Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Emelyanychev began his conducting career in his native Russia, while at the same time attracting attention as an extraordinary pianist – with CD recordings of Mozart sonatas, for example, or playing the fortepiano in Teodor Currentzis’ Da Ponte cycle. Since 2013 he has led the highly successful Italian Baroque ensemble Il pomo d’oro, and since 2019 he has also led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has made highly acclaimed recordings with both ensembles. For his BRSO debut, Emelyanychev has put together an attractive Romantic program in which one can expect a fresh approach inspired by the music of the Classical and Baroque periods. This is also in line with violinist Isabelle Faust’s approach – especially for the Brahms concerto, in which she pursues the ideal of clarity, transparency and lightness.
The Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein will launch his BRSO residency, not with a piano concerto, but with two works for piano and orchestra that beggar comparison in their virtuosity, witty playfulness and range of expression. Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) and the 21-year-old Strauss’s Burlesque take listeners through a gigantic panoply of moods and sounds, from diabolical fury to saucy parody, from mighty upsurges to the most delicate of reveries. Just the right milieu for Kirill Gerstein, a straddler of musical eras, of classical music and jazz, and an artist of enormous flexibility and exploratory verve. To enrich the brew, Alan Gilbert, the principal conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, will present Schoenberg’s brilliant orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor. Schoenberg’s quip, that his arrangement is Brahms’s fifth symphony, is as cogent today as ever before.
The Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein will launch his BRSO residency, not with a piano concerto, but with two works for piano and orchestra that beggar comparison in their virtuosity, witty playfulness and range of expression. Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) and the 21-year-old Strauss’s Burlesque take listeners through a gigantic panoply of moods and sounds, from diabolical fury to saucy parody, from mighty upsurges to the most delicate of reveries. Just the right milieu for Kirill Gerstein, a straddler of musical eras, of classical music and jazz, and an artist of enormous flexibility and exploratory verve. To enrich the brew, Alan Gilbert, the principal conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, will present Schoenberg’s brilliant orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor. Schoenberg’s quip, that his arrangement is Brahms’s fifth symphony, is as cogent today as ever before.
Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kožená will give a quite unusual chamber recital together with friends from London and Berlin – especially for BRSO subscribers. In some of the songs Sir Simon will play the piano, but others are accompanied by a string quartet or wind ensemble, adding choice colours to Magdalena Kožená’s mezzo. Owing to the unusual instrumentation, the chosen works are rarely heard in the concert hall and display a vivid panorama of European art song. A rare highlight!
The Academy has chosen compositions that demand quite special ways of approaching their instruments. Stephen Montague, in Thule Ultima, has the wind quintet play mainly on their mouthpieces, like a concert of exotic birds. George Crumb likewise calls for special timbres in his string quartet Black Angels: written to commemorate the victims of the Vietnam War, this pacifist composer asks the strings to play a quotation from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden using the wood of their bows (col legno), producing a bleak, oppressive tone. Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, written shortly after his emigration from Hungary, reflect his immersion in Western culture. Ravel wrote Le Tombeau de Couperin as funeral music for the great French claveciniste. The movements originated during the First World War, and Ravel soon dedicated each one to a fallen French soldier from his circle of friends – a musical memorial spanning the centuries. His Sonata for Violin and Violoncello is likewise a funeral piece for a deceased composer, Claude Debussy.
Clara Schumann virtually stopped composing after her marriage, having not only to earn money from concert appearances for her steadily growing family, but also to give her husband space for his own composing. Yet her sole orchestral work fully merits a firm place in the repertoire. Pianist Beatrice Rana has accepted the challenge of the richly chordal yet splendidly melodious solo part. The slow movement (Romanza) opens with a passionate monologue, followed by an intimate tête-à-tête with the cello. The defiantly hymnic finale likewise places its focus on the piano – Clara’s voice. The programme continues with Symphony No. 3 by Johannes Brahms, the second great love in Clara’s life. “What a work! What poetry!” she exclaimed when she first heard it; “a heartbeat, every movement a jewel!” Before the interval we will hear Hans Abrahamsen’s Vers le silence, a work commissioned by several orchestras, including the BRSO. Here the composer takes up the four elements – fire, earth, wind, water – and adds a fifth element fully in keeping with Greek philosophy: transcendent nature. At the helm of the orchestra in this unusually exciting programme is the well-known Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Clara Schumann virtually stopped composing after her marriage, having not only to earn money from concert appearances for her steadily growing family, but also to give her husband space for his own composing. Yet her sole orchestral work fully merits a firm place in the repertoire. Pianist Beatrice Rana has accepted the challenge of the richly chordal yet splendidly melodious solo part. The slow movement (Romanza) opens with a passionate monologue, followed by an intimate tête-à-tête with the cello. The defiantly hymnic finale likewise places its focus on the piano – Clara’s voice. The programme continues with Symphony No. 3 by Johannes Brahms, the second great love in Clara’s life. “What a work! What poetry!” she exclaimed when she first heard it; “a heartbeat, every movement a jewel!” Before the interval we will hear Hans Abrahamsen’s Vers le silence, a work commissioned by several orchestras, including the BRSO. Here the composer takes up the four elements – fire, earth, wind, water – and adds a fifth element fully in keeping with Greek philosophy: transcendent nature. At the helm of the orchestra in this unusually exciting programme is the well-known Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony, has already performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the BRSO. Now his programme includes Brahms’s Double Concerto. The special form of a concerto for multiple soloists seems to be at once a challenge and a matter close to his heart. Violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott are the protagonists in Brahms’s “work of reconciliation”. Originally conceived as a cello concerto, Brahms later gave his Op. 102 a part for solo violin, hoping it would help him to re-establish contact with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim. For years the two men had fallen out after Brahms took sides with Joachim’s wife during a marital rift. The concerto was meant to revive the deep friendship the two men had enjoyed for many years. Orozco-Estrada will also conduct Bartók’s suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (1928) and Blacher’s Paganini Variations (1947).
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony, has already performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the BRSO. Now his programme includes Brahms’s Double Concerto. The special form of a concerto for multiple soloists seems to be at once a challenge and a matter close to his heart. Violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott are the protagonists in Brahms’s “work of reconciliation”. Originally conceived as a cello concerto, Brahms later gave his Op. 102 a part for solo violin, hoping it would help him to re-establish contact with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim. For years the two men had fallen out after Brahms took sides with Joachim’s wife during a marital rift. The concerto was meant to revive the deep friendship the two men had enjoyed for many years. Orozco-Estrada will also conduct Bartók’s suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (1928) and Blacher’s Paganini Variations (1947).
“An orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”: thus Robert Schumann described the piano playing of Johannes Brahms. Now Igor Levit, last season’s artist-in-residence, returns to the BRSO with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, the very work with which the composer forged his path from chamber music to the symphony. Here the “voices” of the solo instrument and the orchestra blend into an intensive dialogue. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony radiates the relaxed and cheerful holiday mood of the little village of Vysoká. “The melodies just drop into my lap”, the composer enthused, and indeed the symphony seems to “emerge directly from Bohemia’s natural surroundings and the Czech people”, to quote Dvořák’s enraptured biographer Otakar šourek. With this symphony Manfred Honeck conducts one of Dvořák’s most popular works, revealing him to be a Czech national composer to the very core.
“An orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”: thus Robert Schumann described the piano playing of Johannes Brahms. Now Igor Levit, last season’s artist-in-residence, returns to the BRSO with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, the very work with which the composer forged his path from chamber music to the symphony. Here the “voices” of the solo instrument and the orchestra blend into an intensive dialogue. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony radiates the relaxed and cheerful holiday mood of the little village of Vysoká. “The melodies just drop into my lap”, the composer enthused, and indeed the symphony seems to “emerge directly from Bohemia’s natural surroundings and the Czech people”, to quote Dvořák’s enraptured biographer Otakar šourek. With this symphony Manfred Honeck conducts one of Dvořák’s most popular works, revealing him to be a Czech national composer to the very core.
“An orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”: thus Robert Schumann described the piano playing of Johannes Brahms. Now Igor Levit, last season’s artist-in-residence, returns to the BRSO with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, the very work with which the composer forged his path from chamber music to the symphony. Here the “voices” of the solo instrument and the orchestra blend into an intensive dialogue. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony radiates the relaxed and cheerful holiday mood of the little village of Vysoká. “The melodies just drop into my lap”, the composer enthused, and indeed the symphony seems to “emerge directly from Bohemia’s natural surroundings and the Czech people”, to quote Dvořák’s enraptured biographer Otakar šourek. With this symphony Manfred Honeck conducts one of Dvořák’s most popular works, revealing him to be a Czech national composer to the very core.
