Where streams of tourists now flock, artistic activity reigned for centuries. Outstanding composers such as Giovanni Gabrieli and Francesco Usper, as church musicians around 1600, used the galleries of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice to experiment with the new concept of polyphony. Musical successors such as Baldassare Galuppi and Antonio Lotti, also major figures in Venetian music history, were often no less experimental. In the serenade concert of the Duisburg Philharmonic and their guest Frithjof Smith, their works enter into dialogue with those of lesser-known, yet all the more worthy masters—naturally, in historically informed performance practice.

2nd Serenade Concert

Hamborn Abbey

Pavel Haas is one of a whole series of artists who, to this day, painfully remind us of the gaps the Nazis left with their campaign of extermination against Jewish life and culture. At the age of 14, Haas began his musical education at the Brno Music School and later studied for two years at Leoš Janáček's Conservatory. He worked as a music teacher and freelance composer before being deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in December 1941. There, in order to perfidiously maintain the appearance of normality, the Nazis started a "leisure activities" program that also included music. Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krása and Pavel Haas were among the composers who continued to compose in the midst of the unimaginable. As a contribution against forgetting, the memorial concert commemorates the unimaginable suffering of so many people.

Memories of Pavel Haas

Lehmbruck Museum

“Rejoice, be glad”: With his “Christmas Oratorio”, Johann Sebastian Bach created his great Christmas classic for the church. The festive music also comes into its own in the Duisburg Opera Foyer, where highlights from it can be heard. In addition, the Capella Fluviale, the baroque ensemble of the Duisburg Philharmonic, and their guest singers will present a program from the time period of the great Thomaskantor, from Heinrich Schütz's “Small Sacred Concerts” to atmospheric works by Georg Friedrich Händel, Jean-Marie Leclair, Gaetano Maria Schiassi, Dieterich Buxtehude, Gregor Joseph Werner and Michel Corrette. Speaking of classics: traditional Christmas carols are of course not to be missed at this meeting of song and word.

Christmas in Song and Word

Theater Duisburg

As children, the Mendelssohn siblings were inseparable: they took lessons together, made music together, and shared composing tips. While her brother Felix had every opportunity, Fanny had to fight against the conventions of her time, which were not particularly friendly towards women composers. Fortunately, she did not let this deter her and, alongside her family obligations, always cultivated her musical talent and composed diligently. These include songs such as "Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh" (There is peace above all summits) based on a text by Goethe and the Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11. With works like these, as well as excerpts from correspondence and statements by contemporaries, the program paints a fascinating portrait of Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn, playing period instruments.

Luisa Höfs

Events

Upcoming events

Jun 18, 2026

The happy fisherwoman · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Past events

Jun 5, 2026

2nd Serenade Concert · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Apr 3, 2025

Memories of Pavel Haas · Duisburger Philharmoniker

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