Unfortunately, this concert has to be moved to St Marien-Dom Hamburg, as St Jacobi Church will be closed from now until February due to urgent renovation work. Tickets already purchased will of course remain valid. Ticket purchasers will be informed of this change by e-mail.
With Christmas music from Germany and Great Britain, the NDR Vokalensemble invites you to get into the festive spirit. Klaas Stok takes over the direction in Hamburg’s Jacobi Church.
Anton Bruckner would have turned 200 years old on 4 September 2024 – an occasion for the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to focus on important works by the great composer and organist throughout the season. On this evening in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall, the audience can immerse itself in the various facets of his work and influence: Bruckner’s Seventh, perhaps his most popular symphony, meets lesser-known sacred music by the former organist of St Florian’s Abbey and Linz Cathedral.
Silvery, trembling chords awaken a sense of moonlight, a rapturous tenor voice soars over the piano and the male choir responds like an echo. As here in »Nachthelle«, Franz Schubert knew how to create poetic worlds with just a few means of expression. The NDR Vokalensemble and pianist Julius Drake, under the direction of its chief conductor Klaas Stok, dedicate a programme to this master of sonic miniatures, which mainly revolves around Schubert’s choral songs. For a romantic sound, a string quintet joins the eight-part choir in works such as »Gesang der Geister über den Wassern«. An enthusiastic follower of the pioneering Romantic composer was also Arnold Schönberg. The inventor of twelve-tone music would have been 150 years old this year. And so the NDR Vokalensemble is adding some Schönberg songs to the Schubert programme. Both composers wrote wonderful works for the voice, often infused with subtle humour. While Schoenberg even named his Opus 28 »Three Satires«, Schubert’s humour is more subtle. In his »Ständchen«, the soloist sneaks up to her sweetheart at night, »hesitantly quietly« according to the text. But in the original version, she is accompanied by a whole male choir. Does the sweetheart dare to come to the window with such concentrated masculinity?
On 13 September 1874, one of the most influential and revolutionary composers in musical history was born in Vienna: Arnold Schönberg. Exactly 150 years later, the XXL-filled NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under principal conductor Alan Gilbert and several hundred choristers along with top-class soloists congratulate him with a veritable mammoth serenade: the »Gurre-Lieder« is probably one of the most large-scale works in the entire repertoire of classical music. At the same time, a worthy start to the new NDR season full of further highlights! At the premiere of the monumental oratorio in 1913 in Vienna, Anton Webern enthused: »What a moment in my life! Unforgettable… The sensation of this roaring sound really moves me«. And this pupil of Schönberg was not the only one: the entire hall rejoiced when faced with the opulent, intoxicating sounds, which no one would have expected from Schönberg at all! The pioneer of atonality and twelve-tone music had long since distanced himself from his late-Romantic Jugendstil. When he completed the orchestration for this piece in 1910/11, which he had already started between 1900 and 1903, he, nevertheless, did not consider it obsolete, but as the »key to my entire development« and document of his musical origin. Five renowned solo singers, Thomas Quasthoff as the narrator, the combined radio choirs from Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg as well as the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with double and triple wind, string and percussion strengths then let the tragic story of jealousy surrounding the Danish King Valdemar and his mistress Tove become the sonorous event for the opening of the 2024/25 NDR Season. Jens Peter Jacobsen set the medieval myth play at Gurre Castle in Zealand in 1868 in several poems, which provided Schönberg with text templates for his profound orchestral song cycle.
On 13 September 1874, one of the most influential and revolutionary composers in musical history was born in Vienna: Arnold Schönberg. Exactly 150 years later, the XXL-filled NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under principal conductor Alan Gilbert and several hundred choristers along with top-class soloists congratulate him with a veritable mammoth serenade: the »Gurre-Lieder« is probably one of the most large-scale works in the entire repertoire of classical music. At the same time, a worthy start to the new NDR season full of further highlights! At the premiere of the monumental oratorio in 1913 in Vienna, Anton Webern enthused: »What a moment in my life! Unforgettable… The sensation of this roaring sound really moves me«. And this pupil of Schönberg was not the only one: the entire hall rejoiced when faced with the opulent, intoxicating sounds, which no one would have expected from Schönberg at all! The pioneer of atonality and twelve-tone music had long since distanced himself from his late-Romantic Jugendstil. When he completed the orchestration for this piece in 1910/11, which he had already started between 1900 and 1903, he, nevertheless, did not consider it obsolete, but as the »key to my entire development« and document of his musical origin. Five renowned solo singers, Thomas Quasthoff as the narrator, the combined radio choirs from Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg as well as the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with double and triple wind, string and percussion strengths then let the tragic story of jealousy surrounding the Danish King Valdemar and his mistress Tove become the sonorous event for the opening of the 2024/25 NDR Season. Jens Peter Jacobsen set the medieval myth play at Gurre Castle in Zealand in 1868 in several poems, which provided Schönberg with text templates for his profound orchestral song cycle.
»It’s one of those pieces to which I dedicated myself completely. It is that work into which I was finally able to pour all the dreams and passions of my youth,« Frank Martin once said about his secular oratorio »Le vin herbé«, with which he enjoyed great success after the 1942 premiere, when he was already over 50. His choice of material was certainly youthful: the work tells the tale of the rapturous and uncompromising lovers whose future together is surrounded by obstacles. Martin’s oratorio is based on the novel by Joseph Bédier, whose retelling placed the story closer to the original medieval Celtic legend; the composer found archaic sounds to portray the events. »Le vin herbé«, which is named after the magic potion that ignites Tristan and Isolde’s love for one another, was a great success in the opera version, but the composer himself preferred it performed as an oratorio.
Not many works of the 20th century are as commonplace on concert programmes today as the music of Maurice Duruflé, who died in 1986. His sacred vocal music in particular enjoys enduring popularity, no doubt due to its catchy tonal language. Duruflé had little interest in breaking with tradition; in his Requiem of 1947, he explored the model of Gabriel Fauré, two generations his senior, and gave free rein to his enthusiasm for Gregorian chant. Nevertheless, the work is not backward-looking: in contrast to the operatic settings of the requiem mass in the 19th century, Duruflé focussed less on the agony of the Last Judgement and more on redemption in the afterlife. The second of three versions of the Requiem will be performed at the Kulturkirche Altona. Duruflé – probably surprised himself by the great success of his work – transferred the lavish orchestration to the organ soon after the premiere.
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