Composer

Symphonic music can often take the listener on unexpected and exciting emotional adventures. The Symphony Band presents “Diversions” – a concert of music beginning with the quirky marches of Ernst Krenek written 100 years ago. Through the music of luminaries like Casterede, Grainger and Still, we travel to the beach, an aquarium, a train station, and into a peaceful summer evening. The most enticing diversion of all comes from composer and guest electric guitar soloist, D.J. Sparr, who will transport us through a rocking musical landscape in his brand new concerto, co-commissioned by the University of Michigan Symphony Band through the support of the H. Robert Reynolds Commissioning Fund.

EPSG:4326

Symphony Band

University of Michigan

Where Ernst Krenek once lingered, his music now returns. In Nussdorf am Attersee, Florian Boesch, one of the most distinguished lieder singers of our time, interprets the travel book from the Austrian Alps – a cycle full of subtle irony, sharp observation, and poetic precision.

KIRCH'KLANG: Song moves! – Krenek am Attersee

Pfarre Nußdorf am Attersee

International Organ Festival Zurich

Tonhalle Zürich

er Kammermusiktausch mit dem Leipziger Gewandhaus rückt zum Jubiläum von Dmitri Schostakowitsch mit dessen zweitem Klaviertrio eines seiner wichtigsten Werke in den Mittelpunkt. Es entstand im Andenken an Iwan Sollertinski. Der Dramaturg hatte dem Komponisten nicht nur die Musik Gustav Mahlers nahegebracht, sondern auch gewichtige Impulse für das Schaffen Schostakowitschs gegeben. Neben der Trauer um den Freund spiegelt das Trio die Not und das Elend der Kriegszeit. Ein aus jüdischer Volksmusik entlehntes Thema erinnert im Finale gleichermaßen an die Opfer Hitlers und Stalins. Es wird später im berühmten 8. Streichquartett von 1960 erneut verarbeitet – als düstere Mahnung an die Überlebenden.

7. Kammmerabend

Semperoper Dresden

To mark the anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, our chamber music collaboration with the Leipzig Gewandhaus is turning to one of his most significant works: the second piano trio. It was written in memory of Ivan Sollertinsky, the critic and musicologist who not only introduced the composer to the music of Gustav Mahler, but also provided important impulses for Shostakovich’s own work. Dedicated to his friend in the year of his death, the trio also reflects on the hardships and despair of WWII. In the final movement, a melody styled on Jewish folk music recalls the victims of both Hitler and Stalin. The tune was later reworked in the famous 8th String Quartet from 1960 as a poignant reminder to those who survived.

7th Chamber Music Evening Concert

Organ Concert

Wiener Konzerthaus

Carnegie Hall launches its bold exploration of the rise and fall of Germany’s Weimar Republic with this program by The Cleveland Orchestra—called “America’s finest” by The New York Times—and Perspectives artist Franz Welser-Möst. Experience Krenek’s Little Symphony, his final symphonic work before fleeing his homeland of Austria and the Anschluss of 1938, as well as the Adagio from Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony, completed by Krenek. The program continues with an orchestral arrangement of a landmark Bartók string quartet, followed by a suite of music from Bartók’s lurid Miraculous Mandarin ballet. Though it was quickly banned following the premiere, Bartók considered its score one of his finest.

The Cleveland Orchestra

Carnegie Hall

This Vienna/LA double portrait pairs Schoenberg’s delightful Presto in C Major with Schubert’s Quartetsatz in C minor. His debt to Schubert is heard in Transfigured Night. Solo piano works illustrate the composer in LA. Eldon Rathburn’s Schoenberg vs. Gershwin: A Tennis Match portrays close friends and tennis partners. The Canadian film composer won the LA Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist Award in 1945 for which Schoenberg was a judge. Erich Zeisl’s Pieces for Barbara were composed for his young daughter who married Schoenberg’s son Ronald. Ernst Krenek, who emigrated in 1938, composed the witty and heartfelt George Washington Variations. Set to Lord Byron’s protest of tyranny, Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon, composed during WW II, extols Washington.

Transatlantic

First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica

The Miraculous Mandarin is a sumptuous, erotic ballet telling a fantastical tale of a girl forced to act as a decoy by thugs, luring a wealthy Mandarin to his tragic fate. Its theme of the tragic, dark passions between men and women is equally as gripping and powerful — and as controversial — as when it first premiered.

Composer

Ernst Krenek

Events

Past events

Feb 11, 2026

Symphony Band · University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

Aug 22, 2025

KIRCH'KLANG: Song moves! – Krenek am Attersee · Orchester Wiener Akademie

About

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