2025 marks the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel's birth. Fittingly, the program presents a selection of works in which we encounter typical elements of Ravel's sensuous and sophisticated music: Effective virtuosity characterizes the popular "Tzigane," spectacular for the audience, yet highly demanding for the performers, a "virtuoso piece in the style of a Hungarian rhapsody," as the composer himself put it. In "La Valse," Ravel lets the musical worlds of Viennese waltzes and French Impressionism collide, while the second movement of his second violin sonata is inspired by the then-new and exciting jazz.

Serenade for Ravel

Theater Duisburg

Humans have always been fascinated by the moon, and this mystical, pale celestial body has inspired artists of all genres. The mysterious moon and the moonstruck Pierrot are the main characters in "Mondestrunken": Alongside Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire," a prologue and three interludes conjure the moonlit night—with music, scenes, texts, songs, and poems ranging from the poetically contemplative to the cheerfully frivolous. These include the poem "Mondesaufgang" (Moonrise) by the writer and composer Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Robert Schumann's ethereally beautiful "Mondnacht" (Mond Night), and Johann Abraham Peter Schulz's famous musical setting of "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" (The Moon Has Risen).

Moon-drunk

Lehmbruck Museum

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

Just as every new year has its January 1st, (almost) every opera has an overture: sometimes as a turbulent introduction to a comedy full of intrigue and passion, as in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Figaro", sometimes as a departure into an adventure fairy tale full of magic, as in Mikhail Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmilla". The Duisburg Philharmonic's salon orchestra welcomes the year 2025 with a selection of overtures that is as varied as it is virtuoso, mixing lively sounds in three-quarter time. "Everything is a waltz" is not only the motto of Johann Strauss and his brother Josef, but also in Carl Maria von Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" from 1819 - the epitome of Biedermeier waltz bliss.

New Year's Concert with the Salon Orchestra

At the Duisburg Philharmonic's winter concert, candles and string sounds compete for glory - this time in a particularly festive musical setting, when works by Italian baroque composers and contemporary colleagues from the north are performed. The dance sequence from Henry Purcell's stage spectacle "The Fairy-Queen" is already very varied. And while it is not only the spherical "Air" that enchants in Bach's 3rd orchestral suite, selected concerti grossi by Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli and Pietro Locatelli testify to the inventiveness and melodic seductive power of these masters.

Baroque Concert in the Light

Despite the spirit of optimism, the new year also offers an opportunity for reflection: In 2025, the music world celebrated the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II. For the Duisburg Philharmonic's Salon Orchestra, this is just one of many reasons to celebrate the master of three-quarter time at its New Year's Concert. In cooperation with the Susanne Scholten Foundation, the ensemble presents sparkling waltz classics combined with arias and duets from "Die Fledermaus," "The Gypsy Baron," "A Night in Venice," and—to give another operetta king, Emmerich Kálmán, a voice—"Die Csárdásfürstin." Also joining in singing and enjoying champagne are soprano Alexandra von der Weth and baritone Junsung Kim.

Tonio Schibel

Events

Upcoming events

17 - 18 Jan, 2026

New Year's Concert with the Salon Orchestra · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Past events

Nov 23, 2025

Serenade for Ravel · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Oct 2, 2025

Moon-drunk · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Future and recently performed repertoire

Violin in Violin Sonata No. 2 by Ravel

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Violin in Piano Trio in A minor by Ravel

Duisburger Philharmoniker

About

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