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The works of the 3rd Chamber Concerto are all about love and solidarity in word and sound: When Johannes Brahms set about composing the “Two Songs”, it was his close friendship with his long-time companion, the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms wanted to create a musical monument to his love and composed the “Spiritual Lullaby” based on a text by Emanuel Geibel for his wedding, but withdrew the composition and revised it. The composer then published both songs together with “Quenched Longing” based on a text by Friedrich Rückert to mark another happy event: the baptism of his godchild, Joseph Joachim’s son. In both compositions, one can hear the unbridled joy of life, born of love. Leoš Janáček's (late) love for Kamilla Stösslová, who was almost 40 years younger than him, was, however, under a completely different, much worse star. In his second string quartet, with the programmatic nickname "Intimate Letters", his feelings for the young woman are omnipresent. Just a year before his death, Janáček left behind the frivolous testimony of a great love: eruptive, provocative and passionate.

I have played "Death and the Maiden" with my siblings since childhood, naively and full of joy. Today with the certainty and knowledge that Schubert's music reflects everything without words: despair, fear, gentleness and consolation.

Making music together in the Amaris Quartet is like a refreshing breath of air for my artistic work in the orchestra. These concerts are without doubt the most musically gratifying moments that I am allowed to experience as a musician. They sharpen my hearing and subtly inspire my love of music.

The musical portrait of this concert is dedicated to Richard Strauss – a celebrated composer, politically controversial cultural figure and undoubtedly an artist who was ahead of his time. Confidants described him as a humorous person who never let fame go to his head. His love was music, his family and playing cards (he was even said to have been a good loser). He began composing at the age of six. He reached the first high point of his instrumentation skills with his famous tone poem “A Hero’s Life”. Critics accused him of shameless self-glorification in this work, but Strauss said: “I am no hero. I lack the necessary strength; I am not made for battle; I prefer to withdraw, to enjoy peace and quiet…” If you want to look for autobiographical elements in his work, it is worth taking a look at the “Four Last Songs”, which reflect his exploration of the themes of death and farewell – an artistic legacy; a farewell to this world.

Why are we here? Are we loved? Have children someday? Graduate from school? And will there still be someone to remember us in 100 years' time? A group of young people looking for their way through perhaps the hardest time of their lives. Driven by the feeling of loneliness and the longing for closeness, by ignorance and boundless curiosity, by pressure to perform and sheer despair, they struggle through the school year: Moritz, Melchior, Wendla and their classmates. They experience violence, abuse, death and a small spark of hope for all the survivors (perhaps also the dead). Wedekind's drama is more than a coming-of-age drama, it is a reckoning with the society of its time, an unsparing story that has lost none of its revolutionary power to this day and will be unleashed in a new and contemporary way through music in this world premiere.

In this concert, which concludes Kent Nagano's ten-year term as General Music Director, two key strands of his concert dramaturgy for Hamburg come together: the reference to tradition, namely to the Hanseatic Johannes Brahms, whose four symphonies the Philharmonic has accompanied in recent years in its Hamburg concerts as well as on tours - and the sound of our present in innovative premieres. A look back makes us think of Widmann's ARCHE, Dusapin's "Waves", Shepherd's "On a Clear Day" and many other outstanding new creations. In this concert - as both a crowning finale and farewell - a new symphony by the young Argentinian Alex Nante will be heard in his unmistakably dreamlike, spiritual sound language.

The Hamburg State Orchestra's philharmonic concerts become ZeitSpielen and transcend the boundaries of the ordinary: In this concert, Stephen Hough will interpret Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto, entirely in the spirit of its author as both pianist and composer - for he will replace the second movement with a newly composed piece inspired by Beethoven's original.

The soundscapes of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra's chamber concerts are as diverse as the characters of the musicians who perform in them. The demands in the orchestra pit are often characterized by the size and diversity of the voices. Chamber music, on the other hand, reduces this dimension to smaller ensembles and allows for intimate musical interaction. As in a dialog, different opinions come together, new ideas emerge and develop during the performance, opening up a creative space for spontaneous development.

Under the direction of Omer Meir Wellber, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra is adding a colorful accent to the season: THE BLUE WEEK. The new festival replaces the former Academy Concerts and combines unique works and programs on the one hand and showcases the special qualities of our orchestra musicians on the other. In the first edition, they make metamorphoses of all kinds audible - for example, in the first festival concert with Boulez's groundbreaking and enigmatic work Le Marteau sans maître, the instruments mutate into singing voices, while the singer repeatedly takes on a sound role without text. In a labyrinthine way, the work itself unfolds all its characteristics from a single small cell, as if from the sequence of our genetic information, from which first an embryo and then everything else emerges, without anyone arbitrarily intervening from outside.