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Mikhail Glinka’s »Divertimento brillante« dates from a time when Glinka was living in Italy and saw the world premiere of Bellini’s bel canto opera »La Sonnambula« at La Scala in Milan. The melodic material comes from this opera, Glinka’s Divertimento consists of just one long movement with a brilliant finale, from which the work undoubtedly takes its name. The first half of the concert focuses on Finland’s musical heritage, including »Don Juanquijoten Virtuoosinen Pöytämusiikki« (The Virtuoso Table Music of Don Quixote) by Aulis Sallinen, which was written to celebrate the 70th birthday of cellist Arto Noras and premiered by Noras in Helsinki in 2012. Noras himself also performs this work here in Hamburg. In Janáček’s »Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs«, the stage belongs entirely to the strings of the Czech Talich Quartet, while Dohnányi’s Sextet, Op. 73 forms the finale, a work composed entirely in the spirit of late Romanticism, yet also infected by the zeitgeist: with a kind of ragtime for clarinet and piano in the finale.
Two years after his brilliant debut at Musikfest Berlin with the Royal Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, shooting star Klaus Mäkelä will perform a programme with the Oslo Philharmonic in 2024 that includes the much played and frequently misunderstood Fifth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich – and a dialogue with birds.
The writer Jean Giono was convinced that “the world is an optimistic creation”, citing as proof the fact that “all birds sing in a major key!" In keeping with springtime, this concert will put some chirruping birds on stage, starting with a composition from our guest conductor's native Finland. Einojuhani Rautavaara, who died in 2016, was a creative free spirit. He wrote his popular "Cantus Arcticus" in 1972 – a neo-romantic, mystical piece that uses tape recordings of bird calls. Our programme also features a masterpiece by Stravinsky, whom Cocteau described in poetic terms: "From a musical point of view, we were all in the midst of impressionism. There, suddenly, in the midst of the magical ruins, a tree grew – Stravinsky." In this fairy-tale score, the glittering firebird flutters through an enchanted garden. Schumann, too, was inspired by feathered beings: according to his wife Clara, he “firmly believed that angels were hovering around him, making the most glorious revelations to him." Yefim Bronfman will dive into the romantic wonderland of Schumann's Piano Concerto, first performed in 1845, which contains an allusion to the aria "In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" (“In the spring of life”) from Beethoven's "Fidelio”. The celebrated South Korean composer Donghoon Shin once said that in his creative workshop he could "hear all the sounds of the universe", and accordingly his work is shaped by a huge range of different influences. His brand-new orchestral piece is inspired by the political poem "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen" by the Irish Literature Nobel Prize laureate William Butler Yeats – and challenges the notion of an “optimistic creation”, reflecting our current troubled times.
The writer Jean Giono was convinced that “the world is an optimistic creation”, citing as proof the fact that “all birds sing in a major key!" In keeping with springtime, this concert will put some chirruping birds on stage, starting with a composition from our guest conductor's native Finland. Einojuhani Rautavaara, who died in 2016, was a creative free spirit. He wrote his popular "Cantus Arcticus" in 1972 – a neo-romantic, mystical piece that uses tape recordings of bird calls. Our programme also features a masterpiece by Stravinsky, whom Cocteau described in poetic terms: "From a musical point of view, we were all in the midst of impressionism. There, suddenly, in the midst of the magical ruins, a tree grew – Stravinsky." In this fairy-tale score, the glittering firebird flutters through an enchanted garden. Schumann, too, was inspired by feathered beings: according to his wife Clara, he “firmly believed that angels were hovering around him, making the most glorious revelations to him." Yefim Bronfman will dive into the romantic wonderland of Schumann's Piano Concerto, first performed in 1845, which contains an allusion to the aria "In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" (“In the spring of life”) from Beethoven's "Fidelio”. The celebrated South Korean composer Donghoon Shin once said that in his creative workshop he could "hear all the sounds of the universe", and accordingly his work is shaped by a huge range of different influences. His brand-new orchestral piece is inspired by the political poem "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen" by the Irish Literature Nobel Prize laureate William Butler Yeats – and challenges the notion of an “optimistic creation”, reflecting our current troubled times.
