Name: Mendelssohn & Friends
Start: 2024-11-03T11:00:00
Location: Philharmonie Mercatorhalle

Önder Baloglu

Desar Sulejmani

Duisburger Philharmoniker

David Orlowsky is an ace on the clarinet: with him, the clarinet laughs, cries, sings, and laments as if it had a voice of its own. The expressive spectrum he coaxes from his versatile instrument is certainly tremendous. The clarinetist, who makes his debut with the Duisburg Philharmonic with this concerto, is equally at home in classical music and in klezmer music, which he first encountered through his mentor and teacher Giora Feidman. And this specifically Jewish musical tradition plays a central role in Osvaldo Golijov's suspenseful suite "The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind," in which the composer tells a kind of history of Judaism—from its beginnings with Abraham to the present day. Olivier Messiaen's "Hymn" also has a religious reference, in this case to the "Holy Sacrament" of the Eucharist. Although the score was lost in the Second World War, the composer later reconstructed it from memory. In the second half of the concert, Robert Treviño , who courageously stepped in for Eun Sun Kim , who was ill at the Philharmonic's 9th Symphony in December 2022, conducts Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, which evokes its creator's closeness to nature and the vastness of the Finnish landscapes. Also ingenious is the way the composer constructs an entire symphony from a small three-note motif at the beginning – right up to the grandiose finale.

Dreams and prayers

CityPalais

Diana Tishchenko began playing the violin at the age of six and, barely of age, became the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. But what are the duties of a concertmaster, what is her favorite music, and how does it feel to travel the world playing an almost 300-year-old violin? What the human voice can do, the clarinet can do even more. David Orlowsky discovered this when he first picked up the clarinet. "I try to use the clarinet like my voice." He founded his own trio at the age of 16. He has since won many awards and traveled the globe, exploring the boundaries between musical genres - whether classical, klezmer, or his own compositions. The Indian singer Kamalini Mukherji , who lives in New York , has been a guest in Duisburg many times. She always sees her music as a call to fight for women's rights in India and for human rights around the world. After the exclusive mini-concert in the schools, the students can talk to the three exceptional musicians and learn more about the exciting and diverse life of a musician.

solo4teens

Stadt Duisburg

Young and old listen to the music together and then embark on a journey of discovery. What do the instruments sound like, how do they produce their sound, and what does it feel like? What do Wilhelm Lehmbruck's "Kneeling Woman" or Jean Tinguely's sculptures sound like? Through music and the visual arts, sensory impressions, positive emotions, and memories are simultaneously addressed. Members of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Sybille Kastner from the Lehmbruck Museum's art education department will be participating.

Listen to art

Lehmbruck Museum

By breaking rules, composers always revolutionize the way their works are perceived by their audiences. Frederic Rzewski, for example, liberated New Music from its ivory tower and made it the vehicle for his political message; John Cage declared chance a co-author and silence an integral part of his music; Steve Reich, in turn, founded a new musical movement with Minimal Music – hypnotic, pulsating, and timelessly modern. The Duisburg pianist is declaring the ninth edition of his successful Kai Schumacher & Friends format under the motto "Changing Rules," looking not only at the aforementioned visionaries of the past. Also performing this evening: the duo AFAR, who explore the paradox of naturalness and artificiality with the help of analog synthesizers, electric guitar, and voice. In this joint experiment with Kai Schumacher, they push the boundaries between classical repertoire and electronic soundscapes, between tradition and new beginnings. Where does a concert lead that knows no predefined paths? The answer lies in the moment – ​​and perhaps exactly where you least expect it.

Kai Schumacher & Friends Vol. 9

Koray Berat Sari , a multi-award-winning bağlama player, jams with a youth ensemble, can be seen in theater and music projects, and performs with musicians from the Duisburg Philharmonic. During his visits to Duisburg schools, he brings a wide selection of saz instruments, including the bağlama, the oud, the duduk, and the daf. Where do the instruments come from, and what do they have in common? The community musician and his guests demonstrate how to tap along to the beat or drum with the tongue to the music. The rule for the students is: get involved in the body percussion!

saz4teens

György Kurtág is undoubtedly one of the most important composers of our time; on February 19, 2026, he will celebrate his 100th birthday. His music is "fragile, defenseless, as if clumsily groping through the pathless, teetering on the edge of silence – yet glowing with emotional intensity," Kurtág expert Hartmut Lück once beautifully put it. As a birthday present, Christof Weinig, double bassist with the Duisburg Philharmonic, has compiled a program of works by the Hungarian composer, which he will perform together with his wife, son, and close associates. A very personal conversation concert for a special composer.

Kurtág 100

To effectively advance climate protection, all forces in society are needed – including those of culture. And so, in 2020, it was a no-brainer for the Duisburg Philharmonic to become founding members of the Orchestra of Change initiative: an alliance of German professional orchestras and individual musicians who, through active engagement, seek to give the topic of sustainability a broader space in their professional environment and, at the same time, raise public awareness through their artistic work.

Climate Workshop #5

St. Mary's Church Duisburg

In 2024, the Trio con Brio Copenhagen celebrated its 25th stage anniversary: ​​a quarter-century of ensemble history, during which the three have delighted audiences with their characteristic blend of harmonious interplay and instrumental perfection. They have already demonstrated their talent in Duisburg, too, in the 2022/2023 season with works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, among others. This time, the program features Lili Boulanger, one of the most gifted composers of her time: she was the first woman ever to win the famous Rome Prize before her tragically early death from tuberculosis at the age of 24. However, she was still able to complete a pair of unlikely works for trio: one, "D'un matin de printemps," full of enchanting spring colors and hope, the other, "D'un soir triste," full of despair and melancholy. The only piano trio by Maurice Ravel follows in a cheerful and relaxed manner, in which the composer plays with sophisticated sound mixtures and intricate rhythms, while Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Piano Trio No. 2 strikes a particularly passionate tone and is, as the composer himself remarked, "a bit nauseating to play."

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

"Peace doesn't come by itself," Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv said in an interview: "Without active commitment, it won't exist." And she herself sets a good example, with the resources available to her as a musician. In 2023, for example, she conducted a solidarity concert for Ukraine in Duisburg with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, which she founded. Now she returns with a piece that she also initiated. "Oksana Lyniv's idea to compose a work based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 'The Little Prince' immediately inspired me," says composer Eduard Resatsch. He sees the abstract figure of the prince as a beacon of hope in a modern world: "For me, this fairy tale embodies the comprehensive idea of ​​universal humanism; it is a metaphor for world peace – especially in today's world, when we must say goodbye to many illusions." Following the world premiere in Paris on February 25, 2026, Oksana Lyniv will conduct the German premiere of this hopeful work in Duisburg. Following this, the young Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko will play—at the conductor's special request—the "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand," which Ravel composed for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War. The concert will then conclude with Camille Saint-Saëns's magnificent "Organ Symphony."

Peace music

The toccata concert "Trumpet & Organ" was originally scheduled to take place last year, but then the devastating floods struck Valencia, Pacho Flores' adopted hometown. Together with star conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the trumpeter and Artist in Residence for the 2024/2025 season organized a benefit concert for the victims of the natural disaster – which took place on the day of the planned toccata. However, the two musicians did not want to deprive the Duisburg audience of the spectacular sound experience, when radiant trumpet tones combine with the majestic sound of the Eule organ – and will present their personally curated program in the 2025/2026 season. Pacho Flores and Carlos Paterson met in Valencia, have already been in the recording studio together, and have brought along not only their own works but also arrangements of other composers. For example, Johann Sebastian Bach's popular cantata "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (Awake, the Voice Calls Us), but also the "Méditation sur Salve Regina" from the "Scènes Mystiques d'une Paraphrase Grégorienne," which Carlos Paterson composed in 2021. In the same year, Pacho Flores also composed "Musas y Resuell," which he dedicated to the Argentine tango king Astor Piazzolla.

Trumpet & Organ

For the fourth time, the Duisburg Philharmonic and its guests, together with Ludger Engels, are developing three concert performances for the special exhibitions at the Küppersmühle Museum. In the nine editions of the series, which has become a cult classic and whose three performances are now each being performed twice due to high demand, the Philharmonic, with more than 40 guests from music, theater, and dance, have created new levels of experience from the themes and content of the exhibited works. In the next three concert performances, sound interventions will provide audible insights into the works of the Küppersmühle's unique Ströher Collection, as well as the backgrounds of the respective artists and their inspirations.

Concerts at the Küppersmühle Museum

Museum Küppersmühle

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

The music year 2024 offers numerous opportunities to congratulate: 200 years of Bruckner, 215 years of Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 150 years of Schönberg.” Members of the Western Balkans Youth Orchestra and the Essen Chamber Orchestra Les essences also presented a musical bouquet of flowers. With the program “Mendelssohn & Friends - a message of peace”, this unique ensemble group is stopping in Duisburg on its tour through several Balkan states and Central Europe. Together with the soloists and ensemble leaders Önder Baloglu and Desar Sulejmani, the young musicians from over ten nations will shed light on the lesser-known aspects of the work of the prominent jubilarians. The symphonist Anton Bruckner as a chamber music fine artist or the “modernist” Arnold Schönberg on a nostalgic journey into the past? This programme, supported by the Federal Foreign Office, is full of surprises and offers, as a special highlight, two strokes of genius from the teenage days of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, whose Octet will be heard here for the first time in a new arrangement for chamber orchestra that is as fascinating as it is sonorous.