In his »erotic mystery/enigma« Otto Borngräber envisaged the first people driven out of paradise as a nuclear family left to their own devices: Chawa longs for her husband to want her as he used to, but Adahm’s more concerned about eking out an existence. Their pubescent son Kajin charges around in the wilderness looking for a woman, while his brother Chabel seeks redemption by praying to a God. When Kajin catches his mother and Chabel in ecstatic union, he kills his brother, then sees the »future blood of future mankind« in a terrifying vision.

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The First People

Oper Frankfurt

Under the heading "Time Machine", the 11th Philharmonic Concert as part of the Duisburg Philharmonic's "New Ways" project offers a journey back in time: The program refers to a concert that was played exactly 100 years ago as part of a music festival in the city of Duisburg. The "Concerto for Orchestra" by Paul Hindemith had its premiere there, conducted by the prominent General Music Director Paul Scheinpflug. Also on the program from 100 years ago: Beethoven's Violin Concerto and music by Rudi Stephan, who was one of the most promising young composers at the time before he died tragically young in the First World War. Instead of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Axel Kober has put his 4th Piano Concerto on the program, in which the young British pianist and rising star Isata Kanneh-Mason makes her debut with the orchestra. And as a musical tribute to the former General Music Director, there is also the "Shakespeare Overture" by Paul Scheinpflug. However, the concert is not just a reconstruction of Duisburg's rich musical history, but also a lively and critical examination of history: the music festival took place on the occasion of the "millennial celebration of the Rhineland", so it was definitely in a German-national context.

A music festival from old times

Philharmonie Mercatorhalle

It is a dear friend of the orchestra who steps up to the conductor's podium on an evening where none other than Beethoven and Sibelius have the leading roles. At the keys sits one of the most interesting piano virtuosos of our time, Swiss Beatrice Berrut.

Beethoven and Sibelius / GET TICKETS

Konservatoriets Koncertsal

At the age of twenty-eight he died in the First World War, and most of his estate was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1945. And so Rudi Stephan's Music for Seven String Instruments is all the more precious: dramatic, tragic, like an expressionist silent film, seeking the grand gesture. Afterwards, we can dream ourselves away from the world – in Mahler's immortal "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (I am lost to the world) and other Rückert songs, performed by soloists of the SWR Symphonieorchester.

Rudi Stephan

Events

Upcoming events

May 21, 2026

I breathed a gentle fragrance · Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Past events

Nov 16 - Dec 12, 2025

The First People · Oper Frankfurt

18 - 19 Jun, 2025

A music festival from old times · Duisburger Philharmoniker

About

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