Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Tharaud / Benjamin

Curiosity about the unusual

Uncompromising in its democratic structure, open in all artistic concerns: as an autonomous »nomadic collective« with members from 20 different countries, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra earned a place among the world’s elite ensembles soon after being founded in 1997. Just a few days before coming to the Elbphilharmonie, the orchestra will be satisfying its hunger for the new with the London premiere of George Benjamin’s Concerto for Orchestra. With the composer himself conducting, the Hamburg audience can experience this brand-new work in an exciting context. In the interlude of his children’s opera »Higglety Pigglety Pop!«, the Scottish composer Oliver Knussen (1952–2018) describes the way to Yonder Castle in iridescent orchestral colours. Seasoned with a pinch of jazz, Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, which he composed for himself as a soloist in the early 1930s, takes us all the way to America.