Sun, Apr. 07, 2024, 11.00 am | Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall
György Ligeti: "Ramifications" for string orchestra
Alma Maria Mahler: "Seven Songs" for medium voice and orchestra
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 in E minor op. 39
Conductor: Anja Bihlmaier
Mezzo-soprano: Kate Lindsey
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Anja Bihlmaier’s musical intuition, inspiring charisma and ability to combine passion with precision have made her one of the leading conductors of her generation. She has been principal conductor of the Residentie Orkest The Hague since August 2021.
Numerous debuts await her in the 2023/24 season, including with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg with 2 concerts at the Elbphilharmonie, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Bergen Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She also returns to the Salzburg Camerata as part of her debut at the Mozartwoche Salzburg and makes her Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in summer 2023.
With a wide-ranging repertoire that includes Haydn, Mahler, Strauss, B.A. Zimmermann to Sibelius, Bartók, Dvořák, Shostakovich, Debussy, Britten, Galina Ustvolskaya and Unsuk Chin, Anja Bihlmaier has recently conducted the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, the BBC Symphony, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Finnish Radio Symphony, the Danish National Symphony, the Swedish Radio Symphony and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She returns regularly to the Orquesta y Coro Nacional de España and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.
A passionate opera conductor, Anja Bihlmaier gained many years of experience through positions at the Hanover State Opera, the Chemnitz Theatre and the Kassel State Theatre. In February 2023 she will conduct Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” in Tampere and Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Norske Opera in Oslo in September. More recently, she has conducted Gounod’s “Faust” at Trondheim Opera, Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Malmö Opera and various productions at the Vienna Volksoper, including Henry Mason’s acclaimed production of “The Magic Flute” (2020/21).
After studying at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik with Scott Sandmeier, Anja Bihlmaier was a scholarship holder at the Salzburg Mozarteum and deepened her knowledge with Dennis Russell Davies and Jorge Rotter. She was subsequently accepted into the Conductors’ Forum and received a scholarship from the Brahmsgesellschaft Baden-Baden.
"One cannot overpraise Lindsey’s ability to characterize strongly while retaining beauty of tone when the music calls for such.” (SFCV)
Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey is one of the most promising voices of her generation and appears regularly in the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, in Aix-en-Provence, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the Bavarian State Opera.
Kate Lindsey once again shows her great diversity in the season 2021/22 with a wide selection of new role debuts and new productions. At the Maggio Musicale in Firenze the mezzo-soprano kicks off the season jumping in last minute for the houses new production of Cosi fan tutte (Dorabella) before she takes on the role of Nerone - one of her signature roles at the Vienna State Opera - in the revival of the acclaimed and praised Salzburg production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. She then takes on her role debut of Donna Elvira at Vienna State Opera’s new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. At the London Coliseum the mezzo takes on the lead role Offred in the houses’ new production of Paul Ruder’s The Handmaid’s Tale and performs as Orphée at the Washington Concert Opera. At Vienna State Opera she takes on the lead role of La Musica and La Speranza in the operas’ premiere of L’Orfeo in the under the baton of Pablo Heras-Casado. Kate Lindsey finishes her season at the Salzburg Festival taking on the lead role of Dido in a concert version of Dido and Aeneas alongside musicAeterna under the baton of Teodor Currentzis.
Kate Lindsey is recording exclusively for Outhere Music France and has so far released 3 solo albums: Thousands of Miles (2017) with works by Kurt Weill, Korngold; Arianna (2020) with works by Scarlatti, Händel and her third album and second baroque recital album Tiranno (2021) concentrating on the character of Nero including pieces of Scarletti, Handel and Monteverdi.
The Philharmonic State Orchestra is Hamburg’s largest and oldest orchestra, looking back on many years of musical history. When the “Philharmonic Orchestra” and the “Orchestra of the Hamburg Municipal Theatre” merged in 1934, two tradition-steeped orchestras combined. Philharmonic concerts have been performed in Hamburg since 1828, artists such as Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms being regular guests of the Philharmonic Society. The history of the opera company goes back even further: Hamburg has been home to musical theatre since 1678, even if a regular opera or theatre orchestra was only formed later. To this day, the Philharmonic State Orchestra has embodied the sound of the Hansa City, a concert and opera orchestra in one.
During its long history, the orchestra encountered great artist personalities. Apart from composers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, such as Telemann, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mahler, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, since the 20th century chief conductors such as Karl Muck, Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Aldo Ceccato, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gerd Albrecht, Ingo Metzmacher and Simone Young have shaped the orchestra’s sound. Renowned conductors of the pre-war era such as Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Karl Böhm and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt gave brilliant performances, as did outstanding conductors of our times: suffice it to mention Christian Thielemann, Semyon Bychkov, Kirill Petrenko, Adam Fischer and Sir Roger Norrington.
Starting with the 2015/2016 season, Kent Nagano has taken on the position of Hamburg’s General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra and the Hamburg State Opera and since June 2023 also its honorary conductor. In his first season Kent Nagano initiated a new project, the Philharmonic Academy, focusing on experimentation and chamber music. In 2016, Nagano and the Philharmonic toured South America, followed by concert tours to Spain and Japan in 2019, and in the spring of 2023, the Philharmonic State Orchestra made its debut at New York's Carnegie Hall under his direction, which was acclaimed by audiences and the press. Since 2017 Kent Nagano and the Philharmonic State Orchestra have continued the traditional Philharmonic Concerts at the new Elbphilharmonie, for which they commissioned Jörg Widmann to compose the oratorio ARCHE, which was given its world premiere during the hall’s opening festivities. The concert recording has been released by ECM, for which Widmann received the OPUS KLASSIK as Composer of the Year 2019, and ARCHE was performed again in 2023 to great acclaim.
The Philharmonic State Orchestra offers approximately 35 concerts per season and performs more than 240 performances per year at the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, making it Hamburg’s busiest orchestra. The stylistic bandwidth covered by the 140 musicians, ranging from historically informed performance practice to contemporary works and including concert, opera and ballet repertoire, is unique throughout Germany. Chamber Music has a long tradition at the Philharmonic State Orchestra: what began in 1929 with a concert series for chamber orchestra has been continued since 1968 by a series of chamber music only.
In 2008 Simone Young and the Philharmonic State Orchestra won the Brahms Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society. The orchestra has recorded the complete Ring by Wagner as well as the complete symphonies of Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner – the latter in the rarely-performed original versions – as well as works by Mahler, Hindemith and Berg, and has released DVDs of opera and ballet productions by Hosokawa, Offenbach, Reimann, Auerbach, J.S. Bach, Puccini, Poulenc and Weber.
The members of the Philharmonic State Orchestra feel equally beholden to Hamburg’s musical tradition and responsible for the city’s artistic future. Since 1978 the musicians have been participating in education programmes in Hamburg’s schools. Today, the orchestra maintains a broad education programme, including school and kindergarten visits, patronage for music projects, introductory events for children and family concerts. The orchestra’s own academy prepares young musicians for their professional careers. The Philharmonic’s musicians thereby make an equally enjoyable and valuable contribution to tomorrow’s music education in the music metropolis of Hamburg.
As is well known, one should not always believe 100 percent of composers' statements about their own works. However, this quote from György Ligeti, who once taught in Hamburg, is so full of imagery that we don't want to withhold it from you: "Ramifications are, as it were, an end point in the development from 'dense and static' to 'openwork and mobile'. Especially in those areas where the musical fabric is transparent and close-meshed, a whole new kind of 'uncertain' harmony appears, as if the harmonies were 'spoiled' of even temperature or even diatonic. The harmonies have a 'haut goût', decay has entered the music. Ramifications are an example of decadent art." The following seven songs by Alma Maria Mahler, orchestrated by Colin and David Matthews, pay tribute to a woman of the early 20th century too little perceived as an artist and too often only as a (multiple) spouse. And one hears in Kate Lindsey's interpretation: this is far more than a companion piece to Gustav! Finally, conductor Anja Bihlmaier presents music from the far north: No Scandinavian composer has been ascribed more clichés than the Finn Jean Sibelius. First, he created the unofficial anthem of his homeland with his "Finlandia". Secondly, in the course of the 20th century he went his own, that is, not always modern, ways. And third, he soon retired to his lonely country house; henceforth he was often just the "brooding Finn." But his First is courageous, enchantingly expressive, overwhelmingly late Romantic, an important work for music on the threshold from late Romanticism to modernism.
"Life without music is unimaginable."
Brian Barker, Principal Timpanist
Introduction 60 minutes before the start of the event
Venue: Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall, Platz der Deutschen Einheit 4, 20457 Hamburg
Prices: € 74,00 / 57,00 / 46,00 / 31,00 / 13,00
