As every year, the 1st Loh Concert sets the mood for the Christmas season. You can hear ballet music and dance suites by Peter I. Tchaikovsky (»The Nutcracker«, »Mozartiana«) and Ludwig van Beethoven (»Prometheus«). And of course the program ends with the singing of Christmas carols together - this is also a tried and tested tradition of the Loh Concert during Advent. At the same time, it is a forum for selected prizewinners of the Sondershausen Carl Schroeder Competition: Here they have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and musicality in front of an audience.  

1st Loh concert

Achteckhaus

Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, the Viennese trio – and right in the middle of it all, Johann Nepomuk Hummel. This is to be understood as symbolic, as the gifted pianist Hummel was in personal contact with all three. He was a student of Mozart, Haydn's successor in Esterházy and the dedicatee of Schubert's last piano sonatas. He is represented here with one of his best-known works, the highly virtuoso trumpet concerto, played by the Loh Orchestra's solo trumpeter Ralf Glitscher. In addition, there is the lively overture to Haydn's magic opera "Armida" and some of the dances that Mozart wrote for festive balls in the Vienna Redoutensaal. The program is rounded off by Schubert's 5th Symphony, a work from his youth that nevertheless already opens the door wide to Romanticism.

2nd Castle Concert

Blue Hall

Good mood guaranteed! With Germaine Tailleferre's orchestral overture from 1931, we plunge into the hustle and bustle of the big city, into the pulsating life of Paris. The fact that the composer was a member of the legendary artist group "Les Six" (the only female member, incidentally) can be heard in every bar of this music, which is free of romantic pathos.

2nd Symphony Concert

Haus der Kunst

Theater Nordhausen

"Who can do anything after Beethoven?" This sigh, attributed to the young Franz Schubert, expresses - on behalf of so many other composers up to the end of the 19th century - the difficulty of creating any more symphonies after Beethoven's symphonies, which were considered so perfect. Schubert himself left behind a whole series of symphonic fragments in his search for his own path, including perhaps the most beautiful torso of Romanticism with "the Unfinished". Only two movements, but they traverse an entire emotional cosmos.

1st Symphony Concert

At the end of the 19th century, Great Britain was considered a pioneering nation in practically all areas, but it lagged behind in music. Men like Cecil Forsyth did real pioneering work: the violist from London not only wrote important musicological texts, but also gave the country the first solo concert for his instrument. First performed in 1903, it showcases the lyrical abilities of the viola wonderfully. And it inspired successors: colleagues such as Vaughan Williams, Walton, Bax and Bridge also wrote solo works for viola.

5th Symphony Concert

"Missa in angustiis" ("Mass in times of distress") is a truly telling title. Joseph Haydn's D minor work does indeed tell of current hardships and the hope for a better future. The music clearly refers to the war events of that time, the end of which was still far from in sight in 1798. In 1815, the very year when peace finally returned to Europe, the 18-year-old Franz Schubert wrote his 3rd Symphony, in just nine days, as it is said. The youthful stroke of genius seems to capture in music the spirit of optimism after the victory over Napoleon.

3rd Loh concert

St. Blasii Church

4th Symphony Concert

Start the new year in Spain? Musically, that's no problem! Pavel Baleff and the Loh Orchestra Sondershausen take you on a journey to a country that has inspired many composers. In Andalusia, for example, famous operas by Giovanni Paisiello and Conradin Kreutzer are performed. Through Russian glasses, we look at the Iberian Peninsula with brilliant orchestral pieces by Mikhail Glinka and Peter I. Tchaikovsky. The Spanish national heroes Don Quixote and El Cid make an appearance, and there is also the ballet music from Giuseppe Verdi's "Don Carlo". Zarzuela, the Spanish version of the operetta, is also represented with a few examples, before the concert ends appropriately: with Georges Bizet's "Carmen" suite.

New Year's Concert

Adventure Mine

The act of creation has inspired many musicians to create works: Rameau, Haydn, Milhaud, to name just a few. The Russian Andrei Petrov, film composer and friend of Shostakovich, also belongs in this series. His ballet "The Creation of the World" became popular after its premiere at the Mariinsky Theater in 1971, especially in the concert version. Petrov's message - humanity - is as relevant today as it was then, and the music also surprises with its freshness and lightness.

3rd Symphony Concert

In partnership with the Vichy Opera, Clermont Auvergne Opéra allows you to attend Puccini's masterpiece by giving you a €10 reduction on the price of the ticket and by providing you with a free shuttle from Clermont-Ferrand.

Tosca

Vichy Opera House

Watch out, there's something to discover here! The 3rd Loh concert features two opera specialists and a film composer with spectacular instrumental works. Like so many before him, Antonio Salieri, who has chosen to live in Vienna, wrote variations on the popular "Follia" bass. He took the original meaning of "Follia", "madness", very seriously and created extravagant miniatures with highlights for violin, harp, percussion and wind instruments. The fact that his compatriot, the Oscar-winning film music composer Nino Rota, was also at home in classical genres is demonstrated by his bassoon concerto, which is also crowned by a series of variations. The concert concludes with Weber's 1st Symphony, a work full of energy and dynamism that already gives an idea of ​​the later creator of "Freischütz".

"Love is blind," is what is usually said. In Peter I. Tchaikovsky's last opera, "Iolanta," it is different: it is only love that makes the title heroine see. The young woman, daughter of the Provençal king René, has always been blind. But she knows nothing about it. In order to supposedly protect her, those around her keep this from her, as well as the fact that she is a princess. It is only a stranger who rescues her from her paradisiacal world of illusion: the Burgundian knight Vaudémont reveals to Iolanta that she is blind, thus initiating her healing process, at the end of which, through the power of love and thanks to her own strong will, she can finally see.

Pavel Baleff

Events

Upcoming events

1 - 2 Feb, 2025

3rd Symphony Concert · Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

Mar 30, 2025

Tosca · Clermont Auvergne Opéra

Apr 2, 2025

3rd Loh concert · Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

2 - 30 May, 2025

Jolanthe · Theater Nordhausen

Jun 13, 2025

Guest Concert · Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz

Past events

Dec 11, 2024

1st Loh concert · Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

17 - 24 Nov, 2024

2nd Castle Concert · Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Tosca by Puccini

Clermont Auvergne Opéra

Conductor in The Creatures of Prometheus by Beethoven

Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

Conductor in Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky

Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

Conductor in Peter Grimes by Britten

Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

Conductor in Concerto in G minor for viola and orchestra by Forsyth

Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

Conductor in 1st Symphony in D major by Schubert

Loh-Orchester Sondershausen

About

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