Classical concerts featuring

Alan Gilbert

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / NDR Vokalensemble / Alan Gilbert

»Elbphilharmonie Visions« enters its second round with musical fireworks: under the baton of chief conductor and festival initiator Alan Gilbert, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra performs the new work »World Builder, Creature« by young British high-flyer Alex Paxton. »I want to make music that makes me feel most alive when I’m writing it and when I’m listening to it,« explains the 33-year-old. The result: an unmistakable blend of video game soundtracks, virtuoso chamber music and jazz improvisation, which was honoured with the Claussen Simon Composition Prize.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Lawrence Power / Alan Gilbert

To round off the festival for cutting-edge orchestral music, the last concert of the »Elbphilharmonie Visions« festival combines a solo concerto for the viola star of contemporary music Lawrence Power and two orchestral pieces whose vivid sound languages tell of the admiration for Johannes Brahms and the enthusiasm for the world-renowned music education project »El Sistema« in Venezuela.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Emanuel Ax / Alan Gilbert

Since Alan Gilbert has been chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the American grand seigneur of the keyboard Emanuel Ax has returned to Hamburg with regularity. Together, the two take on one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous piano concertos: the one in D minor, K. 466. Its dark key and correspondingly dramatic gesture alone make it stand out from the composer’s piano concertos, which are usually in major keys – this is the Mozart of »Don Giovanni« and the Requiem! But the central island of tranquillity of the »Romance« with its catchy melody also enjoyed great popularity early on.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Emanuel Ax / Alan Gilbert

Since Alan Gilbert has been chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the American grand seigneur of the keyboard Emanuel Ax has returned to Hamburg with regularity. Together, the two take on one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous piano concertos: the one in D minor, K. 466. Its dark key and correspondingly dramatic gesture alone make it stand out from the composer’s piano concertos, which are usually in major keys – this is the Mozart of »Don Giovanni« and the Requiem! But the central island of tranquillity of the »Romance« with its catchy melody also enjoyed great popularity early on.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Emanuel Ax / Alan Gilbert

Since Alan Gilbert has been chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the American grand seigneur of the keyboard Emanuel Ax has returned to Hamburg with regularity. Together, the two take on one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous piano concertos: the one in D minor, K. 466. Its dark key and correspondingly dramatic gesture alone make it stand out from the composer’s piano concertos, which are usually in major keys – this is the Mozart of »Don Giovanni« and the Requiem! But the central island of tranquillity of the »Romance« with its catchy melody also enjoyed great popularity early on.

Gewandhausorchester, Alan Gilbert Dirigent

Brahms' Third Symphony, premiered in 1884, is his shortest and focuses on depth. Hans von Bülow liked it so much he played it twice in one concert. Elgar's Violin Concerto, inspired by Fritz Kreisler's praise, took four years to compose. Its premiere shook Queen's Hall, and a year later, Arthur Nikisch led another impactful performance at the Gewandhaus.

Gewandhausorchester, Alan Gilbert Dirigent

Brahms' Third Symphony, premiered in 1884, is his shortest and focuses on depth. Hans von Bülow liked it so much he played it twice in one concert. Elgar's Violin Concerto, inspired by Fritz Kreisler's praise, took four years to compose. Its premiere shook Queen's Hall, and a year later, Arthur Nikisch led another impactful performance at the Gewandhaus.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Leif Ove Andsnes / Alan Gilbert

Is it just a cliché to assume that French music is particularly sophisticated? Or is there more than just a grain of truth in it? An exciting question. Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra explore this question when they take a trip to France with Leif Ove Andsnes as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival. With three visionary works that rarely find their way into the concert hall and illuminate the festival motto »Future« in a unique way.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Leif Ove Andsnes / Alan Gilbert

Is it just a cliché to assume that French music is particularly sophisticated? Or is there more than just a grain of truth in it? An exciting question. Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra explore this question when they take a trip to France with Leif Ove Andsnes as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival. With three visionary works that rarely find their way into the concert hall and illuminate the festival motto »Future« in a unique way.

NDR Chamber Music Concert with the Elphier-Quartett and Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert on the viola: together with the Elphier Quartet, the trained violinist and violist performs works by Schubert, Britten, Bruch and Schulhoff in the Elbphilharmonie’s Small Hall.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Leif Ove Andsnes / Alan Gilbert

Is it just a cliché to assume that French music is particularly sophisticated? Or is there more than just a grain of truth in it? An exciting question. Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra explore this question when they take a trip to France with Leif Ove Andsnes as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival. With three visionary works that rarely find their way into the concert hall and illuminate the festival motto »Future« in a unique way.

Alban Berg: Wozzeck

As part of the Hamburg International Music Festival, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra devotes itself to an epoch-making opera under the direction of its principal conductor Alan Gilbert: Alban Berg’s »Wozzeck«. With its sensitive and completely honest portrait of a society undermined by militarism and the abysses into which it thrusts people, the opera became one of the greatest achievements of the Weimar Republic – an achievement which continues unabated to this day. In the band of opera stars, who embody the characters in this harrowing drama, one stands out in particular: Matthias Goerne in the title role of a young soldier on the verge of insanity. Started immediately before the outbreak of the First World War, Alban Berg only found the necessary peace to complete his first opera after his military service in the Austrian army. Against the backdrop of the war years, Berg felt all the closer to his protagonist and the opera ultimately became a sounding memorial against militarism and its social impacts. A whole series of productions in opera houses in the German-speaking region soon followed the potentially scandalous Berlin premiere in 1925 – until the piece was banned by the Nazi regime as »degenerate art«. However, this could not stop the global success of this opera.

Alban Berg: Wozzeck

As part of the Hamburg International Music Festival, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra devotes itself to an epoch-making opera under the direction of its principal conductor Alan Gilbert: Alban Berg’s »Wozzeck«. With its sensitive and completely honest portrait of a society undermined by militarism and the abysses into which it thrusts people, the opera became one of the greatest achievements of the Weimar Republic – an achievement which continues unabated to this day. In the band of opera stars, who embody the characters in this harrowing drama, one stands out in particular: Matthias Goerne in the title role of a young soldier on the verge of insanity. Started immediately before the outbreak of the First World War, Alban Berg only found the necessary peace to complete his first opera after his military service in the Austrian army. Against the backdrop of the war years, Berg felt all the closer to his protagonist and the opera ultimately became a sounding memorial against militarism and its social impacts. A whole series of productions in opera houses in the German-speaking region soon followed the potentially scandalous Berlin premiere in 1925 – until the piece was banned by the Nazi regime as »degenerate art«. However, this could not stop the global success of this opera.

Alan Gilbert & Alisa Weilerstein