Name: Bartók Contrasts
Start: 2026-05-10T18:00:00
Location: Hessischer Rundfunk

Günther Albers

Dashiel Nesbitt

Ulrich Horn

Tomaz Močilnik

Laurent Weibel

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Christmas music in a delightful atmosphere. Enjoy familiar music from many countries: enchantingly dreamy and performed with virtuosity. Featuring a fairy garden, The Magic Flute, and of course The Nutcracker – and a Rondo for Horn and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Musically conducted by Adam Hickox, "Christmas All Over the World" will once again be hosted by hr3 morning show presenter Tobi Kämmerer. The hr Symphony Orchestra's international Christmas concert for the whole family, culminating in a sing-along.

Christmas all over the world

Alte Oper

Artists in Residence Lucas & Arthur Jussen will be performing chamber music, presenting captivating works for two pianos or pianists. The program ranges from the vibrant and moving Schubert movements to the rhythmic fire of Béla Bartók and the Romanticism of Robert Schumann. Bartók impressively showcased the secret affinity between the sound of two pianos and percussion in his famous sonata. For piano four-hands, however, the early Romantic Schubert left behind more than any other great composer: among other things, the most monumental sonata movement for piano four-hands we know: a stormily beginning, almost grim Allegro, which later inspired the publisher to title it "Life's Storms." Yet here, too, the heavens open – with one of those harmonic turns with which the late Schubert repeatedly transports his listeners to another world. The same is true of his single Adagio Trio movement, in which time seems to stand still.

Life's storms

Hessischer Rundfunk

The hr-Symphony Orchestra's chamber concert series returns to Bad Nauheim, this time with a truly exceptional quintet. When trumpet, trombone, horn, and tuba come together, you can expect a rich, magnificent sound and a varied and captivating program. The first half of the evening will surprise with vibrant and lively pieces that evoke memories of faraway places, bygone eras, and sunny days. The second half will then focus entirely on the Christmas season. Frankfurt Radio Brass was founded in 2023 by five members of the orchestra with the desire to present the audience not only with orchestral repertoire but also with the broad and brilliant spectrum of brass music at the highest level. From Baroque and Romantic to contemporary, there's something for everyone, as the musicians of Frankfurt Radio Brass are committed to presenting every genre of music with the same passion, musicality, and technical perfection that listeners have come to expect from the hr-Symphony Orchestra. The joy of making music together is always paramount and is visible and palpable to everyone. The five solo wind players are among the leading musicians of their generation and have won numerous prizes at national and international competitions.

Brass Connection

Werner-Borchers-Halle

Konzertmuschel der Trinkkuranlage

John Adams doesn't just like to think big, he sometimes dreams big too. For example, of a supertanker rising from the sea like a gigantic rocket. Dream images like this inspired his large-scale orchestral work "Harmonielehre" (Theory of Harmony) as well as the whimsical scenery of his "Chairman Dances." The composer from Massachusetts is—somewhat against his will—considered part of the broader field of Minimal Music. His breathtakingly expansive "Harmonielehre," with its impressive percussion section, is both late-Romantic and expressive, as well as richly sensuous in its sound. But of course, it is also rhythmically captivating, even hypnotic—a typical Adams. It premiered exactly 40 years ago and has since been considered a touchstone for every orchestra, and the American conductor David Robertson, making his debut with the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra), is regarded as a specialist in its interpretation. The percussion section also takes center stage in Bartók's work, acting as the third soloist in the Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra. Timpani and xylophone become melodic instruments, while the Jussen brothers are given free rein to unleash their percussive fury at the pianos. Indeed, the world is turned somewhat upside down in this program – and particularly grotesquely so in the exuberant revue number "The Chairman Dances" by John Adams: Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, dances a foxtrot, accompanied by a US president on a bar piano – this is the bizarrely ironic setting of this effective orchestral piece.

Harmony theory

In the festive atmosphere of Wiesbaden's Kurhaus, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt) traditionally welcomes the new year with an entertaining and artistically first-class program – this time under the direction of the young Belarusian conductor Vitali Alekseenok. Alongside the well-known overture "The Bartered Bride" by Bedřich Smetana, the "Wiesbaden Master Concerts" will also feature the unconventional Cello Concerto by Friedrich Gulda, performed by the internationally acclaimed young cellist Anastasia Kobekina, as well as Zoltán Kodály's "Dances of Galánta" and Maurice Ravel's "La valse."

New Year's Concert Wiesbaden

Kurhaus Wiesbaden GmbH

His last, great symphony in C major "has resonated among us like none since Beethoven's," wrote Schumann, who so deeply revered Schubert's symphonic legacy. With Kent Nagano, it finds a conductor here who, like few others, can open ears anew to this singular masterpiece. Kent Nagano, however, always brings contemporary music to the forefront. He is particularly fond of the music of Henri Dutilleux, who died in 2013 at the age of 97: Dutilleux was considered the last French classic of modernism and a composer who valued lyricism, poetry, and iridescent timbre. And, as is especially true of the cello concerto "Tout un monde lointain…", the virtuosity—the cello, under the hands of Jan Vogler, is required to perform truly acrobatic feats. Yet Dutilleux never lost touch with his listeners. He, who can be considered the heir of Maurice Ravel in particular, once said that for every young composer there is "the moment when he has to, so to speak, kill his father. Perhaps I haven't done that thoroughly enough. But perhaps that's precisely why my music is more accessible to the public. Although it was never my intention to be understood. I'm simply searching for my absolute truth."

Schubert Symphony in C major

With a captivating program, the hr-Symphony Orchestra's chamber concert enriches this season's Lauterbach Hohhaus Concerts. Franz Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata is among the Viennese Romantic composer's most famous chamber works. Its sonorous soundscape makes it a truly virtuosic piece, which can be experienced alongside two brilliantly compelling chamber music works from the early years of the great operatic dramatist Richard Strauss. The 19-year-old Strauss's Piano Quartet in C minor is considered the pinnacle of his engagement with Brahms. His only violin sonata, composed at the age of 23, was also a stroke of genius.

Arpeggione

Hohhaus Museum Lauterbach e.V.

Is it a concert? Or is it a game? Does the conductor set the tone, or do you, sitting in the Alte Oper, an active participant in this music adventure game? Equally an auditory experience and an experiment, the outcome is open – but that's also part of the game's rules: the music will be magnificent, next-level, no easy mode. The soundtrack to "Game of Thrones," the powerful sounds of "Mars, Bringer of War," the "Danse Macabre," impactful classics by Elgar and Strauss – these and much more are the cornerstones of this interactive adventure game, in which concertgoers guide a story and are thus drawn ever deeper into an auditory adventure. The works of Saint-Saëns to Gustav Holst, from Sibelius to Rachmaninoff form the backdrop, sometimes epically mysterious, sometimes explosive like a final battle. The hr Symphony Orchestra is preparing to take a step into the unknown. Those who dare and embrace it will be rewarded with an experience that no streaming algorithm can offer with such intensity.

Music Adventure Game

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

A program that begins in silence, almost in white noise. And that ends in the ecstasy of sound. In Scriabin's mystery music, everything dissolves in a visionary orchestral explosion of color – it was "like an ice bath, cocaine, and rainbows." It was the writer Henry Miller who once raved about "Le poème de l'extase" with this comparison. Premiered in New York in 1908, the music world had never experienced anything like it, and even today this music catapults the audience into a parallel universe. In his concert with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, conductor Oscar Jockel builds the effect layer by layer: After his own meticulously composed nothingness, the simplicity of Schubert's four-hand Fantasy in F minor seems like an intimate secret, the contrasts intensifying with Britten's "Scottish Ballad." Then Debussy's "Jeux" sheds new light – as the conductor says – on the ecstasy of the love dance, with its lively melodies and dissonant harmonies soaring upwards in triple meter. Finally, the "absolute sublimation" is achieved with Scriabin, who, as a trained philosopher, explored not only musical realms of the barely comprehensible.

Poem of Ecstasy

Precocious, prodigy, highly gifted – how can one describe Felix Mendelssohn's musical achievements at an age when today's teenagers are busy striving for high scores in video games? After all, he was already 17 when he wrote an overture that, as a masterpiece, absolutely belongs in the top 10 of classical music. Felix Mendelssohn – he wasn't called the "Mozart of the 19th century" for nothing: no other composer's music sounds so effortless, so ethereal, as if conjured from thin air. The best example of this is his incidental music to Shakespeare's comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream," this literary classic from the realm of fairies, whose plot is so intricate yet whose wit is so exuberant. Everything takes place in just a few hours of a single night, but when everyone involved is as hyperactive as they are here, and when magic potions come into play, anything can happen. Mendelssohn's music is correspondingly magical: weightless like elves, surprising like the mischievous imp Puck, shimmering like something from distant fantasies. After this pure Mendelssohn evening with the hr-Sinfonieorchester and its chief conductor Alain Altinoglu, a place on cloud nine is guaranteed.

Midsummer Night's Dream

Beauty bordering on the unreal: This is what connects the music from A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Brahms chants with Unsuk Chin's Cello Concerto. The bright, ethereal radiance of Mendelssohn, which seems to defy grounding, is mirrored here in the celestial sounds of the Korean composer. If musicians remained in their comfort zone, the sonic result wouldn't move them, says Unsuk Chin. That's why she always pushes her performers to their limits with what she writes for them. Thus, in this highly sensitive work, not only cellist Alisa Weilerstein, driven to extreme technical realms, but also the musicians of the hr Symphony Orchestra find themselves in a unique and demanding sonic universe – which then superbly prepares both performers and listeners for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the incidental music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. For here, a magical literary world is captured in music with a weightless delicacy, as no composer has ever achieved before or since.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

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.