Author: Andrea Kerner

The Oberon Trio and tenor Ian Bostridge are a well-rehearsed team. Especially when it comes to the joint programmes with arrangements of English, Scottish and Welsh folk songs for voice and chamber music by Beethoven and Haydn: “Listening is simply a pleasure,” was the verdict of the Passauer Neue Presse on the programme in summer 2022. In January 2023, they will be guests at the Philharmonie Essen.

Sunday, 15 January 2023, Philharmonie Essen
Folk song arrangements by Ludwig van Beethoven & Joseph Haydn

Another turbulent and eventful year lies behind us – while on the one hand we are pleased and relieved to note that, despite the pandemic, music can once again take place under the usual conditions, on the other hand the war in Ukraine and its consequences have presented us with new questions and challenges. So we can hardly speak of a “return to normality”, but rather a “different normality”, which is characterised by the fact that it does not seem so “normal”. As a society and as individuals, in both professional and private contexts, we have to adapt to big and small, slow and fast, fundamental and less significant changes – and are always faced with the choice of seeing them as a challenge or an opportunity.

We are grateful to be able to look back on a year that has brought us challenges, but also many exciting opportunities: our team has grown and been able to develop new skills, and more ensembles have joined us; artists who are breaking new ground with new ideas and showing that change can also mean enrichment – including the Babylon Orchestra, the franz ensemble, Elina Albach’s Continuum and the Phantasm Viol Consort.

Before we start our Christmas holidays, we would like to give you a short preview of the upcoming concerts we are looking forward to:

⭐︎ Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Vox Luminis
⭐︎ Il Giardino Armonico and Isabelle Faust
⭐︎ Oberon Trio and Ian Bostridge
⭐︎ and further concerts in January and February.

But most of all, we would like to wish you all happy and relaxing holidays & a Happy New Year 2023!

Andreas Richter, Andrea Kerner, Julia Larigo, Michael Sauter, Daniela Gast, Capucine Valois & Benjamin Kaiser

“Wo die Sprache aufhört, fängt die Musik an”

The first edition of TRIOGIPFEL will pay tribute to one of the most important artists of German Romanticism: E.T.A. Hoffmann, whose death anniversary in June 2022 is the 200th. Although world-famous today primarily as the author of a body of work as profound as it is imaginative, Hoffmann devoted much of his artistic and publishing output to music: he worked as a Kapellmeister and music director in Bamberg, Leipzig and Dresden, published music reviews (including several important Beethoven reviews), essays and musical narratives, and began composing at a young age. His rich oeuvre includes stage plays and vocal music as well as a whole series of chamber music compositions, including the Piano Trio in E major.

In addition to Hoffmann’s “Grand Trio” in E major, the programme includes Beethoven’s “Ghost Trio”, Brahms Piano Trio op. 8, Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 and specially commissioned piano trios by Britta Byström and Frank Zabel. The Oberon Trio has invited two internationally renowned trios, the Morgenstern Trio from Amsterdam and the Amatis Trio from Salzburg, as musical partners for this successful summit storming. The musical repertoire is complemented by a carefully curated selection of texts by E.T.A. Hoffmann, presented by actress Stella Maria Adorf.

The TRIOGIPFEL E.T.A. 200 will be climbed as a long concert night at KühlhausBerlin, an exciting new venue for classical music in the immediate vicinity of Gleisdreieck Park. A place of encounter and creativity, open to partnerships, impulses, ideas – open to Berlin and its artists.

19 November 2022, KühlhausBerlin
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio D major op. 70/1 “Geistertrio”
Britta Byström: Doppelgänger Music (world premiere commissioned by the Oberon Trio)
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio B major op. 8
Robert Schumann: Piano Trio No. 2 F major op. 80
Frank Zabel: 3. Trio (Der Sandmann) (world premiere commissioned by the Oberon Trio)
E.T.A. Hoffmann: Piano Trio in E major “Grand Trio” (played by all trios)
E.T.A. Hoffmann: Excerpts from “Der Sandmann”, “Die Elixiere des Teufels” and other texts

This unique project combines horn concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with traditional Cuban music. Inspired by the Mozart statue in the heart of Havana and by the vibrancy of Cuban musical life, horn player Sarah Willis developed, rehearsed and recorded the programme with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra under the direction of José Antonio Mendéz Padrón. The first part of the recording was already released in 2020, and the second part was released at the beginning of September 2022, which will now be flanked by several concerts in Germany.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Horn Concerto No.1 in D major, K. 412
Horn Concerto No.2 in E flat major, K. 417
CUBAN DANCES for solo horn, strings and percussion
YUNIET LOMBIDA Danzón de la Medianoche
WILMA ALBA CAL Guaguancó Sencillo
JORGE ARAGÓN Un Bolero para Sarah
ERNESTO OLIVA ¡Ay Comay! Un Changü. pa´Sari
MARÍA TERESA VERA Veinte Años (arr. by Jorge Aragón)
RICHARD EGÜES El Bodeguero (arr. by Jorge Aragón)
EDGAR OLIVERO Pa Pa Pa
(inspired by the Papageno/Papagena duet from W. A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute)

24 Oktober 2022 – Allerheiligen-Hofkirche München
29 Oktober 2022 – Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksal

With the Building Bridges mentoring programme, Sir András Schiff has established a unique model for the sustainable promotion of young talent, enabling young pianists to build their own bridges to the professional music world. Each season András Schiff, who himself built his internationally acclaimed career without the springboard of a major competition win, selects three gifted pianists with special musical personalities and, in cooperation with conc.arts berlin, arranges recitals for them at concert promoters and festivals throughout Europe. The aim is to support the young artists in establishing their own connections in the professional music world in order to develop their own sustainable network. For the 2022/23 season, Tom Borrow, Avery Gagliano and Julia Hamos have been selected for the programme. At the end of September, the programme will start the new season with its first concerts.

29 September – Avery Gagliano with works by J. S. Bach, F. Chopin and K. Szymanowski
02 Oktober – Avery Gagliano with works by J. S. Bach, F. Chopin and K. Szymanowski
02 Oktober – Julia Hamos with works by J. S. Bach, G.Kurtág and G. Ligeti

On 8 September 2022, the renowned Wigmore Hall in London will launch its concert season with the La Folia Barockorchester. Together with the celebrated soprano Regula Mühlemann, the ensemble under the direction of Robin Peter Müller will create a multi-faceted psychogram of the historical figure Cleopatra and her interpretation in the Baroque era. In addition to famous arias by Handel and Hasse, the programme includes exciting rediscoveries by Graun and Vivaldi.

The concert will be streamed on the Wigmore Hall’s website and available for seven days.

Thursday, 08 September 2022, 7.30 pm
Cleopatra
Featuring works by Carl Heinrich Graun, Giovanne Legrenzi, Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Adolf Hasse, Francesco Geminiani & George Frideric Handel.

The new artistic director of the Beethovenfest Bonn Steven Walter, has already stirred up the German festival scene with his chamber music festival Podium Esslingen. The Budapest Festival Orchestra will now open his first Beethovenfest on under the baton of its founder and principal conductor Iván Fischer. In addition, on the following evening, the orchestra invites the audience to experience Beethoven’s Third Symphony first-hand in a Mittendrin concert.

Vox Luminis and Lionel Meunier create a musical thanksgiving celebration in Bonn Cathedral on, and present a spatially and sonically immersive sound experience with 40 Voices.

Thursday, 25 August 2022, 7.30 p.m.
Prologue: Holy song of thanksgivingng
Works by Caroline Shaw, Osvaldo Golijov, Dietrich Buxtehude, Ludwig van Beethoven, Kaan Bulak
Armida Quartett / Vox Luminis

Friday, 26 August 2022, 8.00 p.m.
Opening “Eroica”
Louis Andriessen »Workers Union«
György Ligeti: „Mysteries of the Macabre“
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 „Sinfonia eroica“
Budapest Festival Orchestra / Iván Fischer, dirction / Anna-Lena Elbert, soprano

Saturday, 27 August 2022, 10.00 p.m.
Late Night: Mittendrin
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 „Sinfonia eroica”
Budapest Festival Orchestra / Iván Fischer, direction

Sunday, 28 August 2022, 6.00 p.m.
40 Stimmen
Works by Thomas Tallis, Josquin Desprez, John Sheppard, Robert Carver & Alessandro Striggio
Vox Luminis / Lionel Meunier, direction

The Musikfest Bremen is an integral part of our concert calendar – and we are quite a bit proud to be able to present the versatility of our orchestras and ensembles at the 33rd edition as well! The interculturally active Babylon Orchestra is already part of the opening on. In its programme Babylon ORCHESTRA Playground, different musical traditions are combined in new compositions and improvisations that leave the European tonal system behind.

Through music to light – under this motto, Vox Luminis and Lionel Meunier reliably enchant their audiences worldwide. They will be in Bremen with two programmes. Another highlight is the return of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century after more than twenty years featuring Alexander Melnikov on fortepiano.

Regular guests in Bremen is the Italian baroque orchestra Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, who travel to the Weser this year with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Avi Avital, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which musically illuminates artistic friendships of the Romantic period with Robin Ticciati and Francesco Piemontesi.

Saturday, 20 August 2022, 7.00 & 10.00 p.m.
Opening “Eine große Nachtmusik” – Babylon ORCHESTRA Playground
Babylon Orchestra

Saturday, 27 August 2022, 8.00 p.m.
Vokalpracht der Renaissance
Works by Thomas Tallis, Josquin Desprez, John Sheppard, Robert Carver & Alessandro Striggio
Vox Luminis / Lionel Meunier, direction

Tuesday, 20 August 2022, 8.00 p.m.
Für die Ewigkeit
Works by Heinrich Schütz, Claudio Monteverdi & pieces for organ solo
Vox Luminis / Lionel Meunier, leader / Kris Verhelst, organ

Tuesday, 30 August 2022, 8.00 p.m.
Forte-Piano!
Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Michael Glinka & Joseph Haydn
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century / Alexander Melnikov, fortepiano & direction

Friday, 2 September 2022, 8.00 p.m.
What’s next, Vivaldi?
Works by Antonio Vivaldi, Aureliano Cattaneo, Luca Francesconi, Simone Movio, Giacinto Scelsi & Giovanni Sollima
Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini, recorder & direction / Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

Sunday, 4 September 2022, 7.30 p.m.
Meister der Mandoline
Works by Giovanni Paisiello, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Nepomuk Hummel & Joseph Haydn
Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini, recorder & direction / Avi Avital, mandolin

Friday, 9 September 2022, 8.00 p.m.
Künstlerfreundschaften der Romantik
Works by Carl Maria von Weber, Robert Schumann & Johannes Brahms
Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Robin Ticciati, direction / Francesco Piemonesi, piano

We are looking forward to the major festivals for orchestras and ensembles in Bremen, Lucerne and Bonn, as well as to many more concerts by our orchestras at renowned concert series and festivals throughout Europe. The Building Bridges mentoring programme, which Sir András Schiff launched in 2014, will also start the 2022/23 season with new participants. Details of concerts with Il Giardino Armonico, Babylon Orchestra, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Vox Luminis, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, CONTINUUM, Chamber Orchestra of Europa and the franz ensemble can be found in our current newsletter.