Name: Lunchtime Concert
Start: 2026-06-16T12:45:00
Location: Stuttgart Opera

Experience a musical feast in Stuttgart with the Staatsorchester Stuttgart's diverse range of concerts and recitals. From the soothing Lunchtime Concerts at the Opera House to the evocative symphonic poems of Bedřich Smetana, there's something for every music enthusiast. Notable artists like Dennis Russell Davies, Adam Palka, and Esther Dierkes bring their expertise to the stage, crafting unforgettable performances. Dive into the world of chamber music, orchestral symphonies, and intimate recitals, and discover the rich tapestry of sounds and stories woven by the talents of Stuttgart.

A Musical Journey: Stuttgart's Diverse Concerts and Recitals

Staatsorchester Stuttgart

Enjoy a musical lunch break in the foyer of the Opera House - personally designed by the musicians of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart and the Staatsopernchor Stuttgart.

Lunchtime Concert

Stuttgart Opera

This chamber music concert spans a wide range from the Baroque to Viennese Classicism and Czech Modernism. Jan Dismas Zelenka and Johann Friedrich Fasch were contemporaries of Johann Sebastian Bach. Zelenka came from Bohemia and worked at the Saxon court in Dresden, while Fasch, from Thuringia, worked briefly in Prague. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Cello sonata in G minor in Berlin and dedicated it to King Frederick William II of Prussia. The last two works on the program take us back to the Czech Republic. Leoš Janáček’s Pohádka tells the Russian fairy tale of Tsarevich Ivan and Princess Marya in a rhapsodic tone. Bohuslav Martinů initially studied in Prague and moved to Paris in 1923. There he absorbed various musical influences: the esprit of the Groupe des Six, the formal rigor of Igor Stravinsky and the nonchalance of jazz.

4. Chamber Music Concert

Liederhalle Cultural and Congress Center

In 1874, Bedřich Smetana had a great idea: he planned a cycle of symphonic poems with which he wanted to pay tribute to his native Czech Republic. No sooner had the decision been made than a devastating fate befell him: within a few months, Smetana lost his hearing. His despair is great – but his will to assert himself as a composer is even greater. And so he set to work writing the symphonic poem Vyšehrad. According to legend, the hill beneath this Prague castle rampart is the seat of Princess Libuše, the progenitor of the Czech nation. Smetana tells this story with two harps – as if the medieval bard Lumír were singing his eternal song. The second piece in the cycle, The Moldau, is one of the most famous works not only by Smetana, but in classical music in general. A portrait of the Bohemian Amazon queen Šárka is heard in the third piece: an audibly cruel creature. From Bohemian Fields and Groves reveals the beauty of the composer’s native landscape. Tábor is dedicated to the turbulent history of the Czech Republic at the time of the Reformation. In Blaník, the sixth symphonic poem, Smetana depicts the mountain of the same name, where an army of knights awaits its heroic deployment. Conductor Dennis Russell Davies, General Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera in the 1980s, has a special affinity with all the Czech legends and places.

4. Symphony Concert

Beethoven Hall (Beethovensaal)

Adam Palka presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Yuri Aoki on the piano.

3. Song Recital

What moved Dmitri Shostakovich deeply at the end of his life was expressed musically in his last work. Although he found it more than difficult to write, he put his Viola Sonata op. 147 down on paper - a work in which he looks back on his often painful life full of melancholy. Our Composer in Focus this season is Ivan Danko. His composition Frustration of the Tolerance is inspired by the painting of the same name by Slovakian artist Albin Brunovský and moves between expressive drama, quiet fragility and a hint of folkloristic motifs – an exploration of inner turmoil and the attempt at balance. In his Piano quintet No. 1, Antonín Dvořák does not yet appear as the Czech national composer he has become known as. This music is highly romantic, full of opulent harmonies and rapturous gestures.

5. Chamber Music Concert

Esther Dierkes and Björn Bürger present a recital program in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, accompanied by Cornelius Meister on the piano.

4. Song Recital

Galería Estatal de Stuttgart

Dance has a special significance in all cultures. With his Four Black American Dances, the American composer Carlos Simon shows how important dance is for the black communities in the USA in particular. Simon has chosen four examples: a ring shout, a waltz, a tap dance and finally a holy dance, in which the exuberant forms of expression of black Protestant denominations come to life. Equally gripping are Erwin Schulhoff’s Five pieces for string quartet, in which the Prague-born composer takes up fashionable dances of the 1920s. In the version for large orchestra by Manfred Honeck and Tomáš Ille, the rapid rush of sound in these miniatures is immediately captivating. Antonín Dvořák traveled from Prague to the USA in 1892 to help establish an original American art music. Not only did he give his Symphony No. 9 the title From the New World, he also incorporated harmonic and rhythmic elements from indigenous and black music cultures. Manfred Honeck, General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 2007 to 2011, will return to the podium of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart as guest conductor for this concert.

5. Symphony Concert

Court Kapellmeister – a title that composers were extremely keen on until the 19th century. At the Danish court in Copenhagen in 1861, it was Niels Wilhelm Gade who was delighted to be appointed to this position. It was during this time that he composed his Piano Trio in F major op. 42 – a work in which he audibly recalled the period of his life in Leipzig, during which he was the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister and associated with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann. Ernest Bloch, whose works are influenced by Jewish musical traditions, was both a reconciler and an admonisher of music. His second violin sonata, titled Poème mystique, is impressionistic in tone and alternates between meditative and highly expressive passages. In it, Bloch combines Jewish melodies and synagogue chants with Gregorian chorales from the early Christian church. In 1899, the string octet by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn aroused the ambition of George Enescu, who was only a little older at the time. The Romanian composer maximised the sonic power of this large string ensemble with sweeping melodic arcs and intense furor.

6. Chamber Music Concert

Moritz Kallenberg presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Rita Kaufmann on the piano.

5. Song Recital

Nino Rota had every reason to be happy in 1973 – at least for a short time: his music for Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather was initially nominated for an Oscar, but was suddenly removed from the list. During this time, the Italian composer wrote his clarinet trio, which shows him from both a romantic, yearning and humorous side. Rota did win the Oscar two years later. The melodic arcs in the Phantasy Quintet by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams are shrouded in mist. These elegiac sounds blend 16th and 17th century idioms with moments of English folk song. Just as Vaughan Williams transformed his most successful film music for Scott of the Antarctic into his seventh symphony, Erich Wolfgang Korngold incorporated music from many films into his concert music. The sonorous passion so typical of his style also pervades his large-scale Piano Quintet in E major op. 15, where exuberant intensity and eruptions of sound alternate with the most delicate lyricism and airy sentiment in the smallest of spaces.

7. Chamber Music Concert

The members of the International Opera Studio present a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Vlad Iftinca on the piano.

6. Song Recital

Cornelius Meister and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart conclude their multi-year Gustav Mahler cycle with three concerts. Since 2018, they have performed all nine of the Viennese composer’s symphonies together. In just one week, the Stuttgart Liederhalle offers a unique overview of Mahler’s symphonic oeuvre: from the world-embracing First to the tragic Sixth and the pensive, introspective Ninth.

Lunchtime Concert

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