ConcertPulse
Dodo Tharaud
Philharmonie de Paris, Le Studio (Paris)
A nocturnal music session enjoyed lying down in darkness, lending itself to relaxation and meditation. Alexandre Tharaud and his guests transport the audience to the brink of dreams.
A nocturnal music session enjoyed lying down in darkness, lending itself to relaxation and meditation. Alexandre Tharaud and his guests transport the audience to the brink of dreams.
The Netherlands Philharmonic is one of the most versatile cultural organisations in The Netherlands. The orchestra organises a diverse concert program in The Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam and is a welcome guest on foreign stages and festivals. The Netherlands Philharmonic brings classical music to life at the highest level and collaborates closely with international guest soloists and conductors. It takes great pleasure in welcoming and developing new musical talent. Lorenzo Viotti is the principal conductor of Dutch National Opera and the Netherlands Philharmonic.
Yokohama-born Sachiko Furuhata debuted at Carnegie Hall in November 2017 to a standing ovation. She has since performed at major venues such as San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, Edinburgh's Usher Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Philharmonic, and Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie. She has played with orchestras like the Russian State Philharmonic and German Radio Philharmonic. She is a popular and sought-after pianist in Europe.
»Sweet melancholy is the true nature of true love.« This quote by Novalis is an excellent reflection of our relationship with Jonathan Nott: since the turn of the millennium, he held the musical reins together from the podium for 16 years as our Chief Conductor in over 650 always original concerts both in Bamberg and on tour. On his departure, he said somewhat melancholically: »When we all – orchestra and conductor – achieve a result together, then we are influenced by each other. And even if we never see each other again: All the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony are a part of my life.« Fortunately, he has been returning regularly as a guest ever since – and this year’s programme is the start of a concert series with him over the next few seasons, which will also take us to places that were the centres of the chosen musical period. It once again bears his unmistakably individual and highly dedicated handwriting: After all, the English maestro honed our musical profile for musical modernism particularly intensively and lastingly during his time. Now it’s a concentration on two related works that were premiered together in Vienna 120 years ago – with each of the two composers conducting their own piece: Zemlinsky conducted his orchestral fantasy »The Mermaid« based on the well-known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. His former student, then brother-in-law and friend Schönberg performed his tone poem »Pelléas et Mélisande«, based on Maeterlinck’s wonderful drama – which Jonathan Nott has long held dear to his heart. There is no doubt, therefore, that he will be a safe guide through these two works, revelling in late Romanticism.
A nocturnal music session enjoyed lying down in darkness, lending itself to relaxation and meditation. Alexandre Tharaud and his guests transport the audience to the brink of dreams.
The Harvestehuder Sinfonieorchester has been an integral part of Hamburg’s musical life since 1966. Twice a year, its performances in the Laeiszhalle prove that amateur ensembles can also give concerts on a professional level. Each member is required to have outstanding instrumental ability and extensive orchestral experience before they can contribute to musical projects. In more than 130 concerts, the 90-strong ensemble has, under selected conductors, performed works by more than 80 composers, including Hamburg premieres of works by contemporary composers.
Bernhard Lang's Playing Trump 2021, a contemporary composer, traces the words of a despot, collected in peacetime and set to music during wartime. The rhetoric of power shamelessly inverts murderous plans, elevating hypocrisy and blatant lies to principles. The libretto by Dieter Sperl exposes the contradictions and justifications for war.
Michelangelo String Quartet
The legendary ensemble from the Luxor region, Les Musiciens du Nil, offer a sumptuous concert-show that recreates the ambiance of an evening in a village of Upper Egypt, like that where Umm Kulthum was born.
Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Fairytale Poem’ from 1971, with which the Konzerthausorchester and Joana Mallwitz begin their concert, is, according to the composer, about a little piece of chalk with big dreams of marvellous things that it wants to draw. Unfortunately, it is only used as blackboard chalk at school and is eventually thrown away. A boy finds it and begins to draw castles, gardens and sunsets on the street. The chalk is too happy to realize that it is finally disintegrating. Shostakovich's first cello concerto from 1959 shows how the composer was finally able to utilise a wealth of long frowned upon modernist techniques after the death of Stalin. The cellist of the century and dedicatee Mstislav ‘Slava’ Rostropovich became the great midwife. With us, artist in residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason takes on the solo part.Tchaikovsky dedicated the Fourth Symphony, premiered in 1878, to his confidante and patron Nadezhda von Meck. They never met, but exchanged 1200 letters. He wrote to her about the last movement of the Fourth: ‘If you don't have enough reason to find happiness in yourself, mingle with people, see what a good time they are having, how they abandon themselves completely to joyful feelings!’ One can only add to that: Welcome to the Konzerthaus, mingle with our audience!
Under the motto »Orchestra for Democracy«, the DSO invites the audience to two concerts that combine music and speech to make a powerful plea for human rights and the value of our democracy. Central works of classical modernism and late romanticism meet contemporary reflections and create a format that places the demands and reality of our society at the centre.
A demonstration against the CDU, CSU, and FDP's alliance with fascists is scheduled for Saturday, February 1st, with an expected 3,000 participants. Significant traffic disruptions are anticipated, especially near the Cologne Philharmonic. Concertgoers are advised to plan alternate routes or transportation. The demonstration starts at Heumarkt at 4 pm and ends with a rally at Deutzer Werft around 9 pm. Yunchan Lim will be performing Rachmaninov's challenging second piano concerto, followed by a performance of a classical composition by jazz composer Wynton Marsalis.
For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!
A wicked sultan, a beautiful princess, and a thousand and one nights of pleasure.Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade might sound like a box of Turkish Delight, but make no mistake, it’s one of classical music’s most sensuous treats. So let the LPO and 2024/25 Fellow Conductor Juya Shin show you a world of glittering excess, swashbuckling thrills and pure silken seduction, all painted in sumptuous orchestral colour. First though, enjoy Ravel at his most personal and powerful, as the ‘astonishing’ (Classic FM) pianist Nicholas McCarthy plays the thrilling Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Trust us: hearing is believing.
A breathtaking musical journey that shows in a folkloristic and cheerful way the musical bridges that connect Bach and other classical European icons with the most beautiful Latin American rhythms. The concert begins with Bach and ends with him. In between, the musicians show the full richness of Latin American music.
For several years, Schaghajegh Nosrati has championed the music of French composer and pianist Charles Valentin Alkan, contributing to his rediscovery with an acclaimed recording of several of his piano works. As the final piece of her solo recital, she has chosen Alkan’s unconventional and highly virtuosic “Symphony for Solo Piano.” The program also includes works by Bach, Bartók, Haydn, and contemporary German composer Charlotte Seither.
Every pianist and soloist takes a risk with Franz Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Few have dared to tackle this pianistic chunk, which demands everything at once: power, virtuosity, a sense of the piece's architecture, and a keen ear for detail. Igor Levit takes on this task. Liszt has long been a favorite in his repertoire. For a TV documentary, he already traced the composer's footsteps around 15 years ago. Levit's program for the Essen Philharmonic is brilliant: First, he takes us back to the starting point of all romantic piano virtuosity, Bach's "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue".
Leipzig Ballet, under Rémy Fichet, presents "Humans," a double bill exploring creative and abstract dance narratives. Louis Stiens examines dance's embodiment, its impact on choreography, and Leipzig Ballet's history, linking to Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony. Sofia Nappi blends ballet, contemporary dance, and performance, exploring Baroque and modern elements with music by Clara Schumann and Henry Purcell, reflecting on femininity across eras.
Mozart, Mozart, Mozart! Pianist and passionate chamber musician Kit Armstrong has invited an illustrious group of musical friends, such as the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Noah Bendix-Balgley and three renowned string quartets, to take part in the Elbphilharmonie Mozart Festival. On their »Expedition Mozart« they revel in the composer’s classics, but also explore rarely performed chamber music. Kit Armstrong himself is represented with two piano concertos, one of which is chamber music through and through, while the other is a large-scale symphonic work. In the Sinfonia Concertante, Noah Bendix-Balgley and Amihai Grosz vie with one another. The composer himself would certainly have appreciated a musical evening of this kind with friends! If you still haven’t had enough of the great Viennese composer after an entire evening of him, why not stay for the late-night concert to round off the evening? You can hear »Eine kleine Nachtmusik« (what else?!), framing rare chamber music gems.
Tango Suite for 2 Guitars (1984) by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) consists of three movements: Allegro, libero; Andante rubato, melancolico; and Allegro.
Michael Nagy, photo: Gisela Schenker Biographers of Gustav Mahler have vied with one another to produce increasingly daring readings of his work through the prism of events in the composer’s life. A rewarding object for comparative analysis is his youthful four-movement cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, originally composed for voice and piano. Full of paradoxes, darkness and fantasy, these songs to the composer’s own words impose autobiographical associations from the very title of the work. In it, Mahler reveals himself to be an insatiable romantic wanderer – a tragic witness to his beloved’s wedding. The work Der Ring ohne Worte does not appear in the catalogue of Richard Wagner’s oeuvre. Although the title may evoke associations with Romantic piano miniatures (songs without words), it is an extensive symphonic ‘synopsis’ of Der Ring des Nibelungen, written by American conductor Lorin Maazel, who died a decade ago. His ambitious aim was to condense the instrumental music from each movement of the great Wagnerian cycle in the right proportions and in such a way as to avoid adding bridges or modulations and to preserve the chronology of events. The result was a work lasting 70 minutes uninterrupted, which begins with the prelude to Das Rheingold and ends with the final notes of Götterdämmerung.
About the work A nation is cowed by its princess. Turandot, beautiful and fascinating representative of a royal dynasty, presides over a gruesome ritual: only her marriage to a suitor will bring an end to the violence, but no would-be bridegroom has yet managed to solve the riddles. The same old spectacle plays out, ending in yet another execution, until Calaf, the son of a deposed ruler from a foreign land, unexpectedly answers the riddles correctly. He then turns the tables on Turandot, forcing her to answer his own question if she wants to steal out of her obligation. Puccini’s times are changing rapidly, the art world is going through drastic transformation and new, abstract forms are being coined to reflect modern-day experience. And the composer, in his early 60s, is again trying to break new ground. Puccini spent the last four years of his life working on TURANDOT, based on a fairy tale by Carlo Gozzi [1762]. The score was his richest and altogether most dissonant. Far from being the soundtrack to a cutesy picture of a doll-like China, the exotic music provided the backdrop to a world suffused in an atmosphere of unimaginable cruelty. Try as he might, Puccini never did settle on a resolution to his drama. The composer who was ever leery of happy endings never managed to escape from the dead-end that he’d created for himself through Liù’s sacrifice and the imminent pairing of Turandot and Calaf. The question of how the two might ever discover some common ground remained unanswered. Puccini was variously intrigued and repelled by the idea of presenting of an all-encompassing love as a means to redemption in the face of everything that speaks against it – and could not bring himself to paint such a utopia. He left only a fragment behind when he died and the Ricordi publishing house brought in the composer Franco Alfano to complete the opera, based on sketches left behind by Puccini. About the production Lorenzo Fioroni’s production sets the action of the story ...
Children’s TV presenter Juri Tetzlaff and his best friend Hasi can once again look forward to amusing and exciting adventures this season in the popular children’s concert series »Hasi«. The young listeners are welcome to bring their favourite soft toys to the cosy cushion concerts at the Laeiszhalle, Studio E: they can even sit in their own »box«. The children get a letter from Hasi before each concert, and of course they can write back if they want to.
Astor Piazzolla's "Adiós Nonino", a version for violin and guitar, from the years 1921-1992.
