Name: Hero's Life
Start: 2026-06-25T19:30:00
Location: CityPalais

Roderick Cox

Boris Giltburg

Duisburger Philharmoniker

At the end of 2022, Roderick Cox made his acclaimed debut with the Duisburg Philharmonic, and now the orchestra and conductor are continuing their successful collaboration. For his return to the Ruhr region, the American conductor has programmed Richard Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben," a kind of musical self-portrait of the self-confident composer. In this symphonic poem, the hero falls in love, defies his critics, and, after a successful battle, carries out his work of peace before withdrawing from the world. Strauss's "Heldenleben" is sonically and visually powerful, but it has also brought him accusations of self-glorification. Before the late Romantic, another titan, Ludwig van Beethoven, appears on the program: his fifth and final piano concerto is in the "heroic" key of E-flat major and takes the solo concerto into equally sonicly powerful symphonic territory. With brutal chords, the piano and orchestra vie for the upper hand right from the start, while the solo instrument is allowed to sing its soulful sigh in the second movement with a beautiful melody. This is in the very best hands with Boris Giltburg , who was Artist in Residence in Duisburg during the 2017/2018 season: The world-class pianist has not only recorded all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas, but also his five piano concertos. A true Beethoven expert, then!