Name: CHANSON D'AMOUR – Ekhof Festival
Start: 2026-09-12T19:00:00
Location: Schloss Friedenstein Gotha

Aco Bišćević

Alberto Pagani

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

ROMEO AND JULIET – Ballet op. 64 by Sergei Prokofiev

Landestheater Eisenach

Who doesn't know the enchanting story of Mowgli, the foundling raised by wild wolves in the Indian jungle? It comes from the famous "Jungle Book," a collection of stories and poems by the British author Rudyard Kipling. The courageous Mowgli, the ever-cheerful bear Baloo, the clever panther Bagheera, and the evil tiger Shere Khan became world-famous in 1967 thanks to Walt Disney's fantastic animated adventure. Disney's "Jungle Book" is one of the most successful films of all time, not least because of its wealth of melodies that have long since become evergreens. And now you can experience these melodies in a completely new guise in concert. Author Patrick Rohbeck and arranger Stefan Goerge have reworked and arranged "The Jungle Book" for the Thuringia Philharmonic Gotha-Eisenach. Join us in the mysterious jungle and experience a captivating story about a friendship that transcends boundaries. Sing along with the wacky orangutan King Louie, laugh at the hilarious elephant parade, and be hypnotized by the cunning snake Kaa. Of course, the Oscar-winning song "The Bare Necessities" is also included. This and all the other fantastic hits make "The Jungle Book" a unique musical treat for the whole family.

THE JUNGLE BOOK – Family Concert

Kulturhaus Gotha

THE JUNGLE BOOK – Youth Concert

Opera gala at the Elbphilharmonie

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

"Orpheus! Is it illusion, is it truth?" – Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera opens immediately with Orpheus's heart-rending lament for his deceased wife, Eurydice. The god Cupid, however, enables him to free his beloved Eurydice from the underworld. On his way out of Hades, he refuses, as instructed by the gods, to look at Eurydice – causing her to doubt his love. When Orpheus finally turns to her, Eurydice plunges back into the underworld. With his fatal decision and action, Orpheus unleashes an avalanche of emotions and demonstrates that art, music, and song, in the name of love, can conquer the terrors of death. The various musical settings of the Orpheus myth have repeatedly marked innovations on the operatic stage. Thus, Gluck placed his masterpiece entirely at the service of the reform opera he championed, moving away from the contrived virtuosity of opera seria towards a focused, dramatic narrative with expressively emotional music. Gluck's setting of the story of Orpheus possesses an unprecedented dramatic truthfulness, allowing the audience to deeply empathize with the lovers' emotional world. The internationally acclaimed star countertenor Valer Sabadus, who was Artist in Residence with the Thuringia Philharmonic Gotha-Eisenach during the 2023/24 season, will sing the title role of Orpheus. He is one of the foremost interpreters of the role and will undoubtedly set a high standard for this series of performances. The Thuringia Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra will perform under the musical direction of Baroque specialist Michael Hofstetter, Artistic Director of the International Gluck Festival Nuremberg.

Luck – Orpheus

Friedenskirche

Margravial Opera House Bayreuth

Altes Rathaus Nuremberg

A friendship developed between Joseph Joachim, the celebrated violinist, and Johannes Brahms, the quintessential composer, characterized by both artistic admiration and critical tension. Joachim, immediately captivated by Brahms's music, soon became his most important confidant and interpreter. Their letters reveal a complex interplay of admiration, loyalty, and sometimes wounded pride—a delicate web of mutual respect and high expectations. However, from 1884 onward, the friendship between Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim was no longer as untroubled as in its early years, for Brahms had sided with Joachim's wife in their divorce proceedings, and since then, the once warm relationship had cooled—marked by expressions and gestures of reserve, coupled with the quiet pride of two artists. Now, however, Brahms's "Double Concerto" for violin and cello was intended to be a sign of reconciliation—a musical dialogue that sought to bridge the gap between them.

JOACHIM, BRAHMS & HAYDN – Reconciliation and Passion

There are works considered significant in music history, yet rarely heard in concert halls. One such treasure is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's String Sextet "Souvenir de Florence." Composed immediately after his opera "The Queen of Spades," it reflects a composer who, after intensive work in Florence, translated his impressions into the unfamiliar territory of chamber music. At the beginning of 1890, Tchaikovsky spent three months in Florence, where he devoted himself entirely to composing "The Queen of Spades"—the opera was completed in just 44 days. Even during this time, he encountered a melody whose elegiac character captured the essence of the city. This memory of Florence became the "Souvenir," the seed of his later String Sextet. Only back in St. Petersburg did Tchaikovsky transform the ideas from Italy into their final form—especially since he owed a musical expression of gratitude to the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society, which had made him an honorary member. With "Souvenir de Florence," Tchaikovsky ventured into new compositional territory: a string sextet that is classically structured yet explores all the possibilities of chamber music interaction. The movement follows traditional form: an expressive sonata movement, a lyrical slow movement in ternary form, a lively scherzo with trio, and a sparkling rondo finale culminating in a virtuosic double fugue. The rich palette of tonal colors and expressive possibilities makes the work a true challenge—and at the same time a joy—for the performing musicians.

SOUVENIR DE FLORENCE – Ekhof Festival

Schloss Friedenstein Gotha

For 35 years, Die Prinzen have reigned supreme in the German pop scene – with their unmistakable sound, witty lyrics, and hits that have long since become part of the country's musical DNA. Six million records sold, numerous gold and platinum records, and two Echo Awards impressively demonstrate: This band is not just a cult phenomenon, they are pop royalty.

The Princes – SYMPHONICA 2026 – All the hits with the Thuringia Philharmonic

Philharmonic Essen

Tempodrom

Cologne Philharmonie

Philharmonie Essen

Gewandhaus Leipzig

Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt, and even Prince Pückler-Muskau once frequented Thuringia's largest landscape park and left their mark. Commissioned in 1799 by Duke George I of Saxe-Meiningen, the 160-hectare Altenstein Park, set against a spectacular natural backdrop, is a unique symbiosis of nature, garden design, and architecture, with Altenstein Castle, built in the English Late Renaissance style, at its heart. The park regularly hosts prestigious summer concerts.

Souvenir De Florence

Altenstein Castle

A singular work with a distinctive character – a work that focuses on one of the most important myths of Greek antiquity: The "Medea" melodrama by Georg Anton Benda, a composer and instrumental virtuoso from Bohemia who worked in the Gotha court orchestra under Frederick III of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, impresses with its immediate expressive intensity and the compelling portrayal of multifaceted emotional and intellectual worlds. In the 18th century, the term "melodrama" referred to a form that was apparently avant-garde enough for its time to impress even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: It is a theatrical piece with musical accompaniment, but with recitations instead of singing. When Medea's voice is heard, her schizophrenic monologue reveals her horrific and gruesome fate: "Here I lie and beg for vengeance on Jason's head!" cries Medea, the forsaken one. Jason, the father of her children, whom she once loved so passionately and who only attained power and dominion through her strength, has cast her out for another woman. But Medea hates as passionately as she loves. Her revenge not only brings death to King Jason and Queen Creusa, but also turns her into the murderer of her own children. How can a loving mother commit such atrocities? What inner turmoil rages within Medea? For millennia, questions like these have made the ancient tragedy, as exemplified by Euripides, an epochal subject for the theater.

MEDEA – Baroque Impulse

MEDEA – Ekhof Festival – Barock ImPuls

In this city in western Thuringia, mystical legends and centuries-old buildings blend with exceptional garden culture. Here, the largest single Chinese garden in Europe and the oldest town hall in Germany stand just a few meters apart.

In The Paradise Garden Of Sounds

Church of St. Peter and Paul

As a topos, love in music history is both an ideal and a contradiction: it is the object of aesthetic shaping, yet always already permeated by the conditions of social existence. The chamber concert "Chanson d'amour – A Musical Declaration of Love" explores this concept historically – from the ornamental figurations of Jean-Philippe Rameau to the expressive chansons of Edith Piaf – and reveals how the image of love changes in the mirror of musical practice. In the Baroque era, love appears as a harmonic fiction, an art that embeds feeling within the structures of courtly convention. Every ornamental figure, every shift in affect marks the boundary between the private and the represented, between individual longing and social order. Later, in the Romantic tradition of arias and songs, love begins to speak – the "I" comes particularly to the fore. Finally, the chansons of the 20th century bring love to the stage as an existential experience: raw, immediate, and passionate.