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»Energetic, dramatic and of crystal clear intensity,« praised the New York Times about the Tetzlaff Quartett, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in 2024. For its birthday, the ensemble, led by star violinist Christian Tetzlaff, has selected an emotional and demanding programme from Brahms right up to the present. There are two reasons to celebrate when the Tetzlaff Quartett returns to the Elbe river: besides their own anniversary, the musicians are also celebrating Arnold Schönberg, who celebrates his 150th birthday in 2024 and to whom the Elbphilharmonie is naturally devoting a special focus for this occasion. With his first string quartet, one of the composer’s earlier works is on the programme – radically innovative, yet still tonal, it pushes the artistic forms of the late Romantic period to their limit. In his own creative process, Schönberg studied the string quartets of Johannes Brahms in particular. Captivated and touched by his motif writing, Schönberg wanted to see himself in the Romantic tradition. How apt then that the Tetzlaff Quartett presents his work after the second string quartet by Brahms. Emotionally unsettling, incomprehensibly dense and profoundly melancholic, the composition is still one of the key works of the quartet repertoire. The musicians, however, open the evening with a fascinating insight into the musical present: for this, they provide the Second String Quartet by the successful composer Jörg Widmann, who has been closely connected with the Elbphilharmonie ever since it opened. His string quartet entitled »Choralquartett« is a unique slow and also emotionally profound movement which holds many novel sound effects.
The Albert Schweitzer Youth Orchestra is celebrating its 50th anniversary with this special concert. It is a great honour for the orchestra to have a real world star as a soloist for this occasion: Christian Tetzlaff, who also played in the Albert Schweitzer Youth Orchestra as a teenager. In the course of his international career, Christian Tetzlaff has performed with all the major orchestras, including the Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam and all the London orchestras. He has worked with legendary maestri such as Sergiu Celibidache, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnányi. Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto still occupies an outstanding position in the literature of violin concertos. It was completed in 1878 and dedicated to the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, who assisted Brahms in writing the solo part. The première was a year later in Leipzig under Brahms’ direction and with Joseph Joachim on the violin. Four years before Brahms’ violin concerto, the operetta »Die Fledermaus« was composed in 1874 by Johann Strauss (son). The overture is a brilliant compilation of the most beautiful melodies from the operetta. Cheerful with bubbling energy on the one hand and on the other hand a highly highly demanding work that requires great virtuosity from the orchestra. The opera »Der Rosenkavalier« was premiered in 1911 and is a masterful blend of comedy and romance. Richard Strauss combined all the highlights of the opera into a purely orchestral suite, in which the audience hears, among other things, the prelude to the first act, the presentation of the roses and the touching final tercet from the third act. The tumultuous Viennese waltz with which Baron Ochs leaves the bar is, of course, included.
In jedem Jahr eröffnet das hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt mit seinem Chefdirigenten in guter Tradition das Rheingau Musik Festival. Im beeindruckenden Klang-Raum der Basilika von Kloster Eberbach entsteht dabei immer eine besondere musikalische Atmosphäre. Auf dem Programm stehen diesmal zwei Meisterwerke der tschechischen Musik: der Orchesterzyklus »Má vlast« von Bedřich Smetana sowie Antonín Dvořáks Violinkonzert mit Christian Tetzlaff als Solisten.
This concert promises two exciting novelties: David Afkham will be the third conductor making his debut this season, and a symphony by Franz Schmidt will be performed for the first time ever in a BRSO concert. Afkham, currently Chief Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra, trained as a conductor with the renowned Bernard Haitink, who was also closely associated with the BRSO – which makes for a fitting debut. Franz Schmidt is one of the Viennese fin-de-siècle composers who is unjustly neglected nowdays. Schmidt himself described the Fourth Symphony, written in 1932-1933 after the death of his 30-year-old daughter in childbirth, as a “requiem.” His epic, late-Romantic style results in deeply-felt music imbued with formal finesse and a tragic, poignant character. Berg’s Violin Concerto, written in 1935, provides the perfect companion piece, since it is also a “requiem” for someone who departed early from this world: Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler’s daughter, who died when she was only 18 years old.
This concert promises two exciting novelties: David Afkham will be the third conductor making his debut this season, and a symphony by Franz Schmidt will be performed for the first time ever in a BRSO concert. Afkham, currently Chief Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra, trained as a conductor with the renowned Bernard Haitink, who was also closely associated with the BRSO – which makes for a fitting debut. Franz Schmidt is one of the Viennese fin-de-siècle composers who is unjustly neglected nowdays. Schmidt himself described the Fourth Symphony, written in 1932-1933 after the death of his 30-year-old daughter in childbirth, as a “requiem.” His epic, late-Romantic style results in deeply-felt music imbued with formal finesse and a tragic, poignant character. Berg’s Violin Concerto, written in 1935, provides the perfect companion piece, since it is also a “requiem” for someone who departed early from this world: Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler’s daughter, who died when she was only 18 years old.