As the year draws to a close, Hamburg bursts into life with a series of spectacular musical events hosted by Symphoniker Hamburg at the iconic Laeiszhalle. The lineup features a blend of timeless classics and innovative performances, offering something for everyone. From Beethoven's transformative Ninth Symphony to intimate chamber music sessions and delightful children's concerts, these events promise to captivate audiences and celebrate the universal language of music. With renowned artists and conductors gracing the stage, this year-end musical extravaganza is poised to leave an indelible mark.

A Symphony of Traditions: Hamburg's Year-End Musical Extravaganza

Sylvain Cambreling

Symphoniker Hamburg

The "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) is Claude Debussy's most popular and also his first important symphonic work. What's more, with its free form, which was completely innovative at the time, and its fascinating synthesis of nature experience and fantasy, it has become the key work of an entire era - "there is good reason to say that modern music awakens in Après-midi d'un faune," according to Pierre Boulez. It is based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé published in 1876: With an enigmatic, overwhelming feeling of fleeting eroticism, a faun (half man, half goat) awakens in the idyllic Arcadia and, half-asleep, remembers flirting with and chasing two lovely nymphs. Both managed to escape him, however, before he went back to sleep. Debussy described it in a somewhat more prosaic way to a conductor who had asked for more detailed explanations: "It's about a shepherd who plays the flute while sitting with his bottom in the grass."

"Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", "La Mer" and Dvořák's 8.

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