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„Thus, fate is knocking on the door” – as anecdote has it, that was how Beethoven described the famous, dramatically forceful motif opening his Symphony No. 5. The initial sounds of the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s The Force of Destiny opera have a similar effect of activating one’s imagination. They serve as a lavish introduction to a story of melodramatic love, which maestro Verdi generously decorated with the intense colours of the monumental wind section. The Italian style and a captivating narrative are also the elements that fuel Nino Rota’s Concerto for bassoon and orchestra. Born in Milan, the composer became famous thanks to the scores he wrote for giants of cinema, the likes of Fellini, Visconti and Coppola. Can we hear that the concert pieces come from the same composer whose sounds told the story of the Corleone family? Obviously! The Concerto for bassoon and orchestra is a gripping narrative led by the noble sound of the solo instrument, filled with plot twists, tightly-packed dramatic events, and even with humour.Film music has borrowed from the works of late Romanticism with abandon. After all, Nino Rota himself is also deeply indebted to Wagner or Verdi, the latter’s work also constituting the finale of this concert. Just like film music, which began to build its own prominence and storm concert halls in Nino Rota’s time, the ballet music from Verdi’s opera Don Carlos gained independence from theatre stages and, over time, found a life of its own as a concert piece. To this day, the instrumental parts inspire awe with their epic orchestration and enthralling dramatic sequences, held together by suspense of a nearly cinematic scale. Krzysztof SiwońConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes
Four composers, four good tidings. What does Christmas actually sound like? For the Baroque composers, one thing was clear: pastoral music for shepherds was a must. Giuseppe Torelli wonderfully captured the scene in the stable in Bethlehem in his »Concerto in the Form of a Pastoral for the Most Holy Night«. Shepherds also cavort in Antonio Vivaldi’s »Four Seasons«. Alongside them, you can hear a dog barking, ice crunching, leaves rustling and birds chirping. Vivaldi’s virtuoso panorama of the seasons is great cinema for the ears. His compatriot Nino Rota even won an Oscar for his film music for the classic film »The Godfather«. But at its core, the grand master of film music was also always concerned with a happy message: composing makes him happy, Rota once said. And making others happy with his music was »the centrepiece« of his work. After all, Bach’s music would be inconceivable without the good news of Christianity. He concluded each of his scores with a pious »Soli Deo gloria« (Glory to God alone), and his music – such as the concerto for three violins – sparkles with vitality.
Two Junior Guildhall ensembles – the Symphony Orchestra and String Ensemble – take to the stage to perform pieces by Nino Rota, Finzi, Strauss and Borodin.
Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Yevgeny Kissin, Cecilia Bartoli, Daniil Trifonov and many others presented themselves to a Berlin audience for the first time here: kicked off in 1959 under the title ›RIAS stellt vor‹ (RIAS presents), the ›Debüt im Deutschlandfunk Kultur‹ concert series presents the most interesting young musicians through the present day; they can be heard not only in the Berliner Philharmonie, but also on the radio all across Germany. Get to know tomorrow’s stars today alongside the DSO!
The Organ Concerto by Francis Poulenc, a classic of the large-scale organ repertoire, is performed by Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna with the Luxembourg Philharmonic under Gustavo Gimeno. The concert also features a new work by Claude Lenners and Ottorino Respighi's "Roman Festivals" and "Pines of Rome".
Solo harpist Anne-Sophie Bertrand joins forces with American tenor Kent Carlson for a diverse chamber music program. Their repertoire spans centuries and styles, featuring harp music by Rota and Debussy alongside songs by Britten, arias by Mattheson and Benda, and works by Hahn, Barber, and Carlson himself.
