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

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was his composition teacher; in addition to a symphony and a piano concerto, he himself wrote a variety of songs, chamber music, and piano works. Yet today, hardly anyone knows Georgi Catoire. To mark the 100th anniversary of his death on May 21, the program opens with his melancholic Piano Quintet in G minor, in which, despite all its originality, echoes of Johannes Brahms can also be heard. Brahms himself is also represented, with his symphonic-like Quintet in F minor. Interspersed with this piece is one of George Onslow's 34 string quintets: Harmonic richness and cantabile melodies characterize the work, in which the composer also achieves a special richness of sound through the instrumentation of cello and double bass.

Quintet discovery

Lehmbruck Museum

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).

Francesco Savignano

Events

Past events

Jun 5, 2026

2nd Serenade Concert · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Mar 12, 2026

Quintet discovery · Duisburger Philharmoniker

Future and recently performed repertoire

Double Bass in String Quintet No. 26 by Onslow

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Double Bass in Piano Quintet by Catoire

Duisburger Philharmoniker

About

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