Cellist

This season, the hr-Symphony Orchestra, together with Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund and renowned German cellist Julian Steckel, presents a program rich in myth and utterly captivating in Fulda. Myths fascinate people because they transcend us. This is true of the music Richard Wagner created for Tristan and Isolde, as well as the music with which Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir captures the idea of ​​a "primal energy" in sound. Jean Sibelius, the great symphonist of the North, proved with his Seventh Symphony that one can express the ultimate in just 20 minutes. His last symphony is like an essence, pure and intense. Dmitri Shostakovich contributes his Cello Concerto No. 1, a work full of masks, facades, and ambiguities—both whimsical and serious.

Concerts at Fulda Castle Theatre

Fulda City Palace Theatre

Myths fascinate people because they transcend us. This is also true of the music Wagner created for "Tristan und Isolde," which sounds incredibly grand. Equally impressive is the music with which Anna Thorvaldsdottir captures the idea of ​​a "primal energy" in sound. These are sounds of singular tension and power. But one myth needs to be dispelled: that symphonies must be long to be significant. Sibelius, the great symphonist of the North, proved with his "Seventh" that the ultimate can be expressed in barely 20 minutes. His last symphony is like an essence, pure and intense, getting straight to the point without any embellishment. For all its significance, grandeur, and depth, this program also offers Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1: a work full of masks, facades, and ambiguities, whimsical yet also serious. The contrasts could hardly be sharper between broad Moderato and frantic Allegretto, between light and dark, machine-like music and grace. Alongside this, one hears and sees a soloist who is almost comically busy – Julian Steckel takes on this hyperactive role, a cellist who says of himself: "I can play Shostakovich at 3 a.m." On the podium of the hr Symphony Orchestra is the Norwegian Tabita Berglund, also a trained cellist, who for some years now has concentrated on conducting – particularly on music from the Nordic regions, on these special powerhouses that transcend the ordinary.

Archora

Hessischer Rundfunk

We all know deep feelings of grief, despair and loneliness and are connected to all of humanity through them. Becoming aware of this can be comforting and dealing with these emotions can even have a healing effect. Peter Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony is pain turned into sound and the expression of a deep personal crisis: his unhappy marriage plunged the homosexual composer into depression, and death seemed to him the only way out.

6th Symphony Concert

Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Halle

Erwin-Piscator-Hau

Due to illness, cellist Amalie Stalheim has been forced to cancel. This also results in a programme change for tonight's concert. Instead of Grażyna Bacewicz’s First Cello Concerto, we will hear the German cellist Julian Steckel perform Haydn’s First Cello Concerto.

Haydn and Dvorák

Stockholm City Hall

 We’re off to the »Golden City«! It gives us great pleasure to regularly travel with our Chief Conductor to his beloved city of Prague – where he studied and began his career as an internationally esteemed conductor. This year, we are guests at the prestigious Dvořák Festival for a residency – because the audience loves Jakub Hrůša’s captivating interpretations. The opening concert already includes two of his favourite works: Dvořák’s wistful cello concerto, about which he said: »Think of a boy who is in love – that’s the content.« His popular symphony »From the New World« is also highly emotional and has been described as an »expression of his love for his homeland from afar«. On the second evening, we celebrate Smetana’s 200th birthday: the three pieces »Richard III«, »Wallenstein’s Camp« and »Haakon Jarl« tell of love, heroism and suffering.

EPSG:4326

On Tour: Rudolfinum Prague

Rudolfinum

A bouquet of roses

Pfalzbau Ludwigshafen

New Year's Concert

Festhalle Pirmasens

Not only will you bask in the sunshine of Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony (he dubbed it “blue sky in A Major”), but you’ll also hear two concertos and two soloists! First, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto — intense, charged with emotion and considered by many the greatest ever composed for the instrument — quotes a beautiful Czech folk song in the instrument’s most ethereal range; and our principal viola gives the world premiere of a concerto by Jonathan Leshnoff, a GRAMMY®-nominated composer ranked among the most-performed living composers by American orchestras. It’s all under the exciting leadership of Ana María Patiño-Osorio, second-prize winner at the Malko Competition for conductors, in her DSO debut.

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

Clemens Schuldt invites us to come in jeans to this concert without musical boundaries, where classical music opens up to other styles and is aimed at everyone! As a preamble, Brahms transcends the academic argument of his Overture Op. 80 , intended for the anniversary of the University of Heidelberg, to draw us into a romantic universe where rejoicing and lyricism coexist. The German virtuoso cellist, Julian Steckel, radically changes tone with the electrifying Concerto by Friedrich Gulda, a "rock concerto" composed in the "Seventies" at the request of Rostropovich.

Cellist

Julian Steckel

Events

Upcoming events

16 - 19 Apr, 2026

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony · Dallas Symphony Orchestra

22 - 23 Apr, 2026

An American in Paris · Orchestre Symphonique de Québec

Past events

Nov 22, 2025

Concerts at Fulda Castle Theatre · Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

20 - 21 Nov, 2025

Archora · Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Cello in Cello Concerto No. 1 by Haydn

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Cello in Cello Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Cello in Cello Concerto in B minor by Dvořák

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Cello in Cello Concerto by Dvořák

Bamberger Symphoniker

About

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