Name: Gastkonzert: Herr der Ringe
Start: 2026-05-29T19:00:00
Location: Arena Leipzig

Experience a world of song and celebration as the MDR Children's Choir embarks on a series of enchanting performances. From Christmas carols that span the globe to dynamic orchestral works and evocative explorations of light and shadow, these events promise to captivate audiences with their diversity and artistry. Join us as we explore the unique cultural and artistic contributions of these concerts, featuring the vibrant voices of the choir and the exceptional talents of renowned conductors and musicians.

A Symphony of Seasons: Unveiling Global Music Traditions

In 2026, Saxony gears up for a significant cultural milestone - the 'Year of Jewish Culture.' This celebration commemorates the centennial of the first Saxon state association of Jewish communities. With a melange of concerts and performances, the MDR-Sinfonieorchester orchestrates a diverse musical journey across time and genres. From exploring the rich history of Jewish music to celebrating classical compositions by renowned artists, these events promise to engage and educate audiences about Saxony’s vibrant cultural tapestry.

Exploring Saxony's Vibrant Jewish Culture and Musical Heritage in 2026

Ludwig Wicki

MDR Children's Choir

MDR-Sinfonieorchester

MDR Radio Choir

In 2026, the Free State of Saxony will celebrate a statewide "Year of Jewish Culture" – 100 years after the founding of the first Saxon state association of Jewish communities. Under the title "Tacheles," projects, events, and exhibitions will make Saxony's rich Jewish culture and history, past, present, and future, as well as irretrievable losses, visible and audible for a year. Our chamber concert also addresses this theme, featuring well-known and lesser-known compositions from a wide variety of genres spanning approximately one hundred years of Jewish musical creation.

Tacheles

Augustusplatz

Gastkonzert Wernigerode

Konzerthaus Liebfrauen Wernigerode

Ravel's Piano Concerto was written for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War. The paradoxical sonic power with which the soloist performs in this virtuoso concerto is all the more remarkable – with exaggeration, parody, and the constant impression of two hands on the keyboard. Almost ten years earlier, La Valse portrayed the glorious collapse of society dancing to its doom. Pēteris Vasks depicts the opposite path: his response to the loud, garish, and chaotic is silence, to which he ultimately returns – his premonition of eternity.

With Left

Gewandhaus

Explaining his orchestral arrangement of Brahms's First Piano Quartet, Arnold Schoenberg told a music critic: "1. I love the piece. 2. It is rarely played. 3. It is always played very poorly because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you can't hear anything from the strings." In the end, Schoenberg created a new soundscape that develops a completely unique appeal without denying its origins. Complemented by Brahms's own arrangement of the Liebeslieder Waltzes and Richard Strauss's setting of Goethe's Op. 14, this program is conducted by Giuseppe Mengoli, one of the most versatile young conductors of our time.

Lieben Sie Brahms?

Congress Centrum Suhl

George Frideric Handel composed his Messiah, which tells the Christian story of salvation in three parts, between 1741 and 1742. Mozart's version was written for a performance in Vienna in 1789; he adapted Handel's composition to suit contemporary audiences' tastes, ensuring its greater success. He replaced the English text with a German translation and altered the instrumentation to better reflect contemporary sound ideals. He incorporated the latest developments in playing technique and instrument making, and employed the newly invented clarinets. Mozart left the composition untouched—a sign of his respect for the master from Halle/Saale.

Mozarts Messias

Theater Erfurt

Three generations: Smetana, the father of the Czech national style, laid the foundation with the cycle "My Fatherland" in 1879. With full originality, he incorporated his folk music inspirations into it, and with sensitive instrumentation, he translated the poetry and power of his models into music. Leoš Janáček, primarily an opera composer, composed little for the concert hall—no wonder, then, that suites emerged from his popular stage works. Vitēzlav Novák, a student of Dvořák, followed in Smetana's footsteps with his symphonic poem, creating a voluptuous tonal painting of his beloved mountains.

Mein Vaterland

Gastkonzert: Herr der Ringe

Arena Leipzig

Silent films of the 1920s sought great material, and Faust offers everything a great cinema needs: a pact with the devil for eternal youth, a love story, forces of good and evil, seduction, social ostracism, and ultimately, redemption through love. Murnau's expressionistic style gave the story an impressive presentation, supported by a musical accompaniment originally composed by Werner Richard Heymann using motifs from Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Bernd Schultheis wrote a new score for the film – the score was created in 1999 and has been performed repeatedly with great success ever since.

Faust

Oper Leipzig

Musical essays are unusual, yet the connection between music and rhetoric already exists in works of earlier centuries. Barber brings the American essay genre into a one-movement orchestral form that, while not programmatic, is nevertheless rooted in a non-musical idea. Brahms's symphonic debut, which only saw the light of day in 1876 after decades of preparation and subtly represents a reaction to the national unification of Germany, appears to have a very similar structure.

Variations

This concert combines diverse approaches to compositions for wind ensembles to create an ambitious sound experience. Franz Danzi's primary intention was to establish a love for the genre among music lovers of his time. Beethoven's Septet (as a chamber music solitaire), despite its status as an occasional composition, had an unintentional influence on subsequent generations. And in Maurice Ravel's Autobiographical Sketch, he notes that the Homage des Tombeau is "directed less to Couperin alone than to French music of the 18th century."

Windspiel

It was his involvement with musical theater, music education, and his turn to historical music that led Carl Orff to his "archaic" compositional style. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he looked back and led the audience of Carmina Burana into a world of medieval songs from the 11th to 13th centuries, in which people were not afraid to attack the church and society and to praise sensual and depraved life. The evocative power of the rhythm in the music, the extraordinary use of instruments, and the declamatory vocal style have lost none of their gripping urgency to this day.

Gastkonzert: Herr der Ringe

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