Name: Desert Music
Start: 2026-02-07T19:00:00
Location: Hessischer Rundfunk

The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra is set to captivate audiences with a series of enthralling concerts this season. From the virtuosic chamber music of Schubert and Strauss to an innovative music adventure game, the orchestra offers a wide array of experiences. Highlights include performances of Steve Reich's minimalist masterpieces, a journey through Mendelssohn's ethereal works, and a fresh interpretation of classical heavyweights like Bach and Dvořák. Each concert promises a unique blend of artistry and innovation, showcasing the talents of renowned conductors and musicians.

A Symphony of Seasons: Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra's Captivating Concert Series

Dive into the captivating world of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra's latest series of concerts, featuring an exquisite blend of classical masterpieces and innovative compositions. From Schubert's virtuosic 'Arpeggione' Sonata to Reich's 'Desert Music', and Mendelssohn's evocative 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', each event promises a unique auditory journey. With celebrated artists and conductors like Su Yeon Kim, Brad Lubman, and Alain Altinoglu at the helm, these performances offer a rich tapestry of sounds and emotions, transporting audiences to new realms of musical artistry.

A Symphony of Masters: Exploring the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra's Enchanting Concerts

Brad Lubman

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

The adventurous tale of Peter and the Wolf is world-famous. Sergei Prokofiev composed enchanting music for this beloved fairy tale about the Russian boy who embarks on a carefree morning stroll, unaware of the great adventures that await him. The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra offers listeners of all ages the chance to experience Peter's adventures live and to follow the famous sounds of the oboe quacking like a duck, the clarinet creeping in like a cat on "velvet paws," and the bassoon sounding like a concerned grandfather offering Peter his often-overlooked advice. This and much more awaits you at this family concert by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Peter and the Wolf

Hessischer Rundfunk

This season, members of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt) will present two masterpieces of chamber music at the Theater Altes Hallenbad in Friedberg. Who doesn't know and love Schubert's only piano quintet, with its famous variation movement on the "capricious trout"? The song's cheerful tone imbues the entire quintet with an aura of unbridled musical joy, to which its bright, luminous sound also contributes. In stark contrast, the program begins with Brahms's long-matured, final piano quartet, which reflects profound biographical conflicts. It is among the most impressive chamber music of the Romantic era.

Trout Quintet

Theater Altes Hallenbad

French chamber music for flute, oboe, and English horn. A concert full of distinctive works from the circle of the extraordinary composer Lili Boulanger, who at the age of 19 became the first woman ever to win the prestigious Prix de Rome and died far too young just a few years later. Lili Boulanger was a child prodigy without equal. At the age of five, she began her studies at the Paris Conservatoire, learning piano, violin, cello, harp, and organ. Her life was shaped by two themes: her exceptional talent and an early lung condition. When she won the Prix de Rome, she also received a scholarship for a three-year residency at the Villa Medici in Rome. Her doctors tried to dissuade her from the trip. But for her, there was no doubt: she had to have this experience. In the end, she left behind over 50 works, including chamber music, hymns, and choral works such as a cantata.

Chant du soir

"Mahler's soul sings its farewell!" – there are countless famous words like this about the Ninth Symphony. And often, they speak of farewell, of the end, of the abyss. This profoundly moving work is a sonic endpoint – and at the same time a high point of the entire genre, of the era. "The orchestra is famous for its Mahler interpretations, and I will continue that," promised Alain Altinoglu in 2021 when he took up the post as chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Frenchman's approach to Mahler is detailed, attentive to structure, crystallizing colors. And in the Ninth, the colors are not exactly the brightest, naturally, because: This is not about the failure in the pursuit of personal happiness, but about the failure of the world as a whole. It is not only Mahler the man who sees himself on the brink of the abyss, but rather humanity itself – the Ninth as a universal requiem. One of the famous sayings about this work was coined by Arnold Schoenberg: "It seems the Ninth is a boundary. Whoever wants to go beyond it must leave." For: "Those who have written a Ninth Symphony were too close to the afterlife."

Mahler 9

Alte Oper

Four guest concerts this season will take the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Alain Altinoglu to Spain in March, performing at the Auditori de Girona, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, ​​the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. On the program is Mahler's Ninth Symphony, the symphonic finale of the great late-Romantic composer, for whose work the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra has enjoyed a special affinity and expertise for decades.

Spain tour

Auditori Palau de Congressos de Girona

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

National Music Auditorium, Madrid

Palau de la Música Catalana

Anyone who has ever heard this music will never forget it. "Le Sacre"—many still pronounce the title with a mixture of awe, horror, and fascination. Stravinsky's ballet music is and remains the system-breaker of the standard classical repertoire. If one wanted to describe the music that, just over 100 years ago, triggered what was probably the greatest scandal in music history—it was in Paris in 1913—terms like "orgy," "Black Mass," "High Mass for Rhythm" might come to mind. It is dance music, but for a completely different, dark kind of dance: earthbound, throbbing, sharp-edged, brutal. Where ballet had previously been expected to be as light as a feather, here everything literally bores into the subterranean depths. It is music that continues to overwhelm. And intoxicate. And that one simply never forgets. Back then, at the premiere, there were only a few who understood what event they were witnessing. One of these contemporary witnesses was able to describe it, this "new kind of wildness in both unartistic and artistic forms: all forms devastated, new ones suddenly emerging from the chaos." Alain Altinoglu and the hr-Sinfonieorchester will awaken the primal musical forces of "The Rite of Spring" in this Young People's Concert and unleash them with powerful sound in the Alte Oper.

Rite of Spring

Almost a family reunion: hr's chief conductor Alain Altinoglu, born in Paris, has Armenian roots. And Sergey Khachatryan, originally from Yerevan, grew up in Frankfurt as one of the greatest violin talents of recent decades. It's only natural that Armenia's most famous composer is also involved, and a bonus that this even results in a small program focus for the hr Symphony Orchestra under the title "Armenian Soul." Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto, composed in 1940, has everything a violinist could wish for: fire, brilliance, the grand cantilena as well as the subtle, yet always perceptible, folkloric touch. And it demands a true virtuoso like Sergey Khachatryan, who says: If he weren't playing the violin, he would have become a race car driver. He always seeks the adrenaline rush, on the podium as well as in life, and he plays every concert with an artistic commitment as if it were his last. Excess: That's also the key word for one of the most famous orchestral works of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." It's ballet music, but not of the lighthearted kind—on the contrary, it's an adoration of the earth, rhythmically pounding, with tremendous sonic power. The premiere in 1913 was dominated by astonishment and tumult—the work still takes your breath away today.

As part of the "Armenian Soul" focus, violinist Sergey Khachatryan and his sister Lusine will perform in the chamber music series, presenting vibrant compositions from their homeland with members of the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra). The program includes "Armenian Miniatures," transcribed from centuries-old folk music by Komitas Vardapet, a priest, singer, and founder of modern classical Armenian music; a romantic and expressive piano trio by Yerevan-born Arno Babadjanian, considered a masterpiece since its premiere in the 1950s by the Oistrakh Trio; and an equally important string quartet by the Soviet-Armenian composer Edvard Mirzoyan, full of graceful lyricism and intense drama. Each piece is a musical reflection of the "Armenian soul."

Colors from Armenia

The hr Symphony Orchestra is actively committed to environmental protection. As a member of the "Orchestra of Change" initiative, it is working in various ways to make the music world more climate-neutral. This season, together with the hr Big Band, it invites you to a resounding and directly sustainable open-air concert. The WaldLiebe Forest Protection Project Neu-Anspach e.V. association has been dedicated for years to the protection, preservation, and future of the forest in the Hochtaunus district through a variety of projects. With this forest concert, the two ensembles of Hessian Broadcasting (hr) aim to support the association's successful work. Wandering from one location to the next, small ensembles will perform short chamber music programs at various points in the forest. And after the musical experience, everyone is invited to take nature conservation into their own hands and participate in the WaldLiebe association's reforestation project in Neu-Anspach.

Forest concert

Neu-Anspach

The Management Symphony – comprised of around 100 executives from the German business world who are passionate about making music at a high level. For their annual rehearsal period culminating in a concert, they invite renowned orchestras to act as coaches and hosts. This season, they are joined by the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) and its chief conductor, Alain Altinoglu. The result of their collaborative work can be experienced in this concert, which presents a symphony that was once a departure into a new world, a romantic and fantastical one. The "Symphonie fantastique" takes an artist's life as its program, and the audience is right there with them. They experience a sonic intoxication unlike anything heard before – so vivid, so powerful, and so dramatic. This artist is captivated by a woman he adores, experiences her in a waltz-filled frenzy at a ball, seeks tranquility on a country outing, has visions of his execution while under the influence of opium – and finally dreams of his burial, accompanied by witches and grotesque faces, by funeral bells and a parodied "Dies irae." The dark Romanticism with all its demons enters the music of its time – this too is a merit that Berlioz deserves with his truly fantastic symphony.

Symphonic Side Step

Inviting Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska guarantees beaming faces in both the orchestra and the audience. And a concert program that is never run-of-the-mill. Here, then: this year's celebrated composer, Maurice Ravel, in dialogue with the master of Polish modernism, Witold Lutosławski. Maurice Ravel is represented by two of his most dynamic works: "La valse," this grotesque lament for the Viennese waltz, which here spirals into the abyss with greater speed and intoxication. And the Piano Concerto in G major, with its jazz elements, entirely in keeping with the fashion of the 1930s. Breathless as the times themselves, this music is a relentless, frantic pursuit. Joining the hr-Sinfonieorchester at the piano is the Frenchman Bertrand Chamayou, for whom Ravel's music has been part of his DNA since his early days at the conservatory. Ravel himself was a regular guest in New York jazz clubs, and so Chamayou knows: This music should sound "like a great, ingenious improvisation." Rigor, yes; brittleness, no—that is the ideal of the pianist whose CD recordings of Ravel's complete piano works were hailed ten years ago as "his masterpiece" (FonoForum) and "a sensation" (Stereoplay).

La valse

Two clarinet works by Bartók, imbued with the richness of Hungarian and Romanian folk music, encounter the exuberant early piano quartet by his Hungarian friend Brahms. Construction, contrast, and surprising hints of jazz meet youthful energy, romantic ambition, and the spirit of the "Hungarian Dances." Bartók's "Contrasts" was the first work with which the Hungarian exile presented himself to the American public in 1940. Commissioned by the legendary Benny Goodman, it was Goodman's jazz background that inspired Bartók to compose the piece. When Brahms once sent his Hungarian friend Joseph Joachim the score of his piano quartet with the "Rondo alla Zingarese," Joachim readily admitted that the Hanseatic composer had surpassed him on his own turf.

Bartók Contrasts

Steve Reich's monumental work for choir and orchestra is more than just a piece of minimal music—it's an acoustic metaphor for what science calls "swarm behavior." Countless rhythmic and melodic phrases are interwoven to form a collective structure that is more than the sum of its parts. Reich employs the repetitive patterns typical of his music, which constantly shift in minute ways, causing the soundscape to move as if in slow motion. Not unlike a flock of birds, each individual acts independently, yet together they form a harmonious and structural whole. The Lithuanian composer Justė Janulytė is known for her minimalist, monochromatic soundscapes, which she pours into slow, ethereal processes with a keen sense of perfect dramaturgy. She plays with the merging of individual voices into a collective mass, making the transition almost invisible. Commissioned by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Justė Janulytė has been inspired to create a new work for large orchestra, which will have its world premiere at Forum N.

Desert Music

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