Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg / Kent Nagano
Hamburg International Music Festival
Opening with an icon
The next edition of the annual Hamburg International Music Festival is upon us – and as always, it features numerous global stars and all the major Hamburg orchestras. So it’s a matter of honour that the Hanseatic city’s oldest orchestra is opening this important season finale. Under chief conductor Kent Nagano, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra performs »On a Clear Day«, a brand-new work by the American composer Sean Shepherd, which the musicians will have premiered in New York’s Carnegie Hall just a few days earlier.
The piece is a large-scale composition for several children’s and youth choirs, solo cello and orchestra, and is based on words by Ulla Hahn. For Nagano, Hahn »is a kind of literary icon. The breath, phrasing and rhythm of her poetry are musical, that’s why we often work together.« The programme is rounded off with Brahms’s »Schicksalslied« and Beethoven’s lively Eighth Symphony. It was while working on the symphony that Beethoven wrote his famous letter to the »immortal beloved« – very fitting for this year’s festival theme of »Love«.
Performers
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Audi Jugendchorakademie
Hamburger Alsterspatzen
The Young ClassX Ensemble
Solisten des Dresdner Kreuzchores
Jan Vogler violoncello
conductor Kent Nagano
Programme
Johannes Brahms
Schicksalslied für Chor und Orchester op. 54
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sinfonie Nr. 8 F-Dur op. 93
– Interval –
Sean Shepherd
An einem klaren Tag – On a Clear Day / Nach einem Gedichtzyklus von Ulla Hahn
Festival
Hamburg International Music Festival