"The Fantastic" is the theme of this season's chamber concerts in the Apollosaal, based on the season's first opera premiere, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Musicians of the Staatskapelle Berlin have developed programs that approach this idea and concept, which play a key role in music, in a variety of ways. Ranging from the Baroque to the present day, with a particular focus on the Romantic period, featuring Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and the multitalented E.T.A. Hoffmann (who, in an idealized form, became the title character in Offenbach's opera), "The Fantastic" will be explored with a variety of chamber music works in diverse ensembles.

Chamber Concert I

Berlin State Opera

For more than six decades, the chamber concerts by musicians from the Staatskapelle have been a constant feature of the Staatsoper programme. This season, ensembles have come together to select music from different periods, styles and cultures under the theme of ‘playing together’. On eleven dates in the Apollosaal, which with its special atmosphere is an ideal venue for chamber music and communicative interaction between players and listeners, works from the Baroque to the present day will be performed in constellations that are both exciting and harmonious, in which tangible contrasts play just as important a role as a common resonance and the balancing of opposites.

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Kam­mer­kon­zert IX

Apollosaal

Since 2010, chamber music ensembles of the Staatskapelle have been performing at the Bode Museum, a jewel of Berlin's museum landscape. Matinee concerts lasting just over an hour in the Gobelin Hall, with diverse programs that include music from the Baroque and Classical periods as well as works from the Romantic and Modern periods, can easily lead into further hours in the museum—for example, with a guided tour of the exhibition and the "Artwork of the Day," a private tour, or a culinary finale in the stylish museum café.

Museum Concert III

UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Museumsinsel

Two clarinet works by Bartók, imbued with the richness of Hungarian and Romanian folk music, encounter the exuberant early piano quartet by his Hungarian friend Brahms. Construction, contrast, and surprising hints of jazz meet youthful energy, romantic ambition, and the spirit of the "Hungarian Dances." Bartók's "Contrasts" was the first work with which the Hungarian exile presented himself to the American public in 1940. Commissioned by the legendary Benny Goodman, it was Goodman's jazz background that inspired Bartók to compose the piece. When Brahms once sent his Hungarian friend Joseph Joachim the score of his piano quartet with the "Rondo alla Zingarese," Joachim readily admitted that the Hanseatic composer had surpassed him on his own turf.

Günther Albers

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 14, 2025

Museum Concert III · Staatskapelle Berlin

May 10, 2026

Bartók Contrasts · Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Oct 6, 2025

Chamber Concert I · Staatskapelle Berlin

May 12, 2025

Kammerkonzert IX · Staatskapelle Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Piano in Contrasts by Bartók

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Piano in Piano Trio No. 1 by Brahms

Staatskapelle Berlin

Piano in Piano Quartet No. 1 by Brahms

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Piano in Piano Trio in E major by Hoffmann

Staatskapelle Berlin

Piano in Sonatina by Bartók

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

About

Günther Albers hasn't added a bio

Günther Albers

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 14, 2025

Museum Concert III · Staatskapelle Berlin

May 10, 2026

Bartók Contrasts · Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Oct 6, 2025

Chamber Concert I · Staatskapelle Berlin

May 12, 2025

Kam­mer­kon­zert IX · Staatskapelle Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Piano in Contrasts by Bartók

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Piano in Piano Trio No. 1 by Brahms

Staatskapelle Berlin

Piano in Piano Quartet No. 1 by Brahms

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Piano in Piano Trio in E major by Hoffmann

Staatskapelle Berlin

Piano in Sonatina by Bartók

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

About

Günther Albers hasn't added a bio

Kammerkonzert IX · Staatskapelle Berlin