Symphoniker Hamburg / Albrecht Mayer / Ton Koopman

His unerring sense of structure, colour and affect have made Ton Koopmann an icon of historical performance practice. For him, music is not a museum treasure, but a living expression that can constantly reinvent itself. In this attitude, he finds a congenial partner: Albrecht Mayer, soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, who with his luminous, singing tone penetrates all facets of Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C major with charm, lightness and inner depth.

However, the programme begins with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, composed in the first third of the 18th century, whose four movements combine Baroque splendour and dance-like elegance. The well-known second movement, Air, has lost none of its impact in its floating timelessness. Mozart opens the second part of the concert: his »Serenata notturna«, composed in 1776 for the Salzburg Carnival, is a musical nocturne in the literal sense: brightly sparkling, peppered with surprises, sometimes courtly, sometimes ironic. Haydn’s Symphony No. 98, composed during his first stay in England in 1791/92, then brings classical formal thinking to the point – with wit, clarity and the penetrating emotionality that characterises his late work.

Music that still moves and energises today as it did 250 years ago, in a matinee that is not just a concert, but a musical journey through time that builds bridges between centuries – and shows how timeless music can be when it is brought to the stage with love, skill and curiosity.