Name: Sunday Matinee
Start: 2025-10-12T11:00:00
Location: Odense Concert Hall

Dive into a world where music and stories intertwine, offering a journey through time and emotions. From the vibrant performances of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen with the Odense Symphony Orchestra to the timeless tale of Verdi's La Traviata, each event showcases the transformative power of music. Whether it's the modern retelling of The 13th Child or the evocative narratives of Shostakovitch & Tchaikovsky, the events promise an unforgettable blend of history and harmony. Join us as we explore these rich musical landscapes, crafted by talented performers and visionary composers.

A Symphony of Stories: Exploring the Melodies of Odense

This event season, embark on a journey through the diverse and enthralling world of opera and symphonic concerts. From Verdi's classic La Traviata, exploring themes of love and freedom, to Poul Ruders' fairy tale opera, and the iconic melodies of Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky, music lovers are in for a treat. Hosted at spectacular venues in Denmark, the performances promise a deep dive into musical histories and fresh compositions, bridging past and present, and offering a rich tapestry of cultural narratives and emotional experiences.

Exploring the Symphony of Emotions: A Journey Through Music and Opera

Odense Symphony Orchestra

The summer holidays are just around the corner, and before the orchestra packs its bags and throws itself into the hammock, we're going on a real musical journey. But where will the trip take us this time?

A Musical Journey

Odense Concert Hall

An evening in the company of WA Mozart is an evening that enriches the soul to the very core of its DNA. In Mozart we find playful lightness and refined elegance in such abundance that we can hardly comprehend it – and then also the gravitas and emotional weight that comes from having been a professional musician and a sparkling genius since he learned to walk. Mozart loved the clarinet's dark-colored cousin, the basset horn, and tonight we will enjoy the fourth of his five moody divertimenti for three basset horns. Mozart's otherworldly beautiful quintet for piano and winds also dates from the first half of the 1780s, which he himself described in a letter to his father as "the best thing I have written in my life".

Nyman, Kapustin & Mozart

Music has a way of settling in our bodies, and the program this evening is guaranteed to make it bubble in every cell. Dvořák's early masterpiece, Serenade for Strings, helped open the doors to the sacred halls of music for the young composer and is a work that is bursting with zest for life, youthful courage, joy and faith in the future – music that is also an opportunity for our wonderful string corps to really sharpen their bows and interplay, undisturbed by noisy colleagues.

Dvořák & Gulda's Cello Concert

If you love big melodies, drama, wild virtuosity and the great emotions that music has a unique ability to evoke in us, then this is the program for you. With the second all-Tchaikovsky program of the season, chief conductor Pierre Bleuse spotlights Tchaikovsky as a symphonist and as the redeemer of the “instrumental concerto” genre. Few themes in the world are as easily recognizable as the opening of the almost legendary Piano Concerto No. 1, when the entire horn group sets off and leaves the stage to the giant chords that have become a caricature of the piano concerto as a concept. But there is no caricature here, because after the world-famous introduction, a labyrinth of imagination and melody reveals itself in a concerto that was considered messy and challenging in its time, but which Tchaikovsky fortunately insisted on publishing in unchanged form, so that today we can revel in the cornucopia of piano cascades and sublime interplay between soloist and orchestra that came to set the standard for all piano concertos thereafter.

Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concert & 5th Symphony

In the encounter with great art, we encounter ourselves more than anything else, and few places in life do we have a better chance of reaching a deeper sod in the encounter with our innermost thoughts and feelings than during one of Mahler's unfathomable symphonies, which are in every way too great to describe in words. And this is perhaps especially true of his very last completed work, the 9th symphony, which he was so afraid to write because great composers usually die after the 9th. And so did Mahler. That is why it is often described as a farewell – to life, to the work of composing and to his beloved wife. But the truth is that it is a symphony that is like a piece of life, cut into thick slices; it contains everything in a way, and it lets us project ourselves into the pain, the joy, the melancholy, the love – and the sadness of having to let it all go. It is an indescribable experience to witness Mahler's 9th Symphony LIVE in the concert hall, and it is very rare that you get the chance, so we are taking advantage of this season, where we are performing it in collaboration with our symphonic friends at Copenhagen Phil.

Mahlers 9.

Two of classical music's most beloved and popular works compete for attention this evening, with both Rachmaninov's sumptuously melodious 2nd Piano Concerto and Smetana's superhit Mà Vlast being placed in the hands of the energetic young conductor Nicolò Foron, who took both audience and orchestra by storm last season.

Má Vlast & Rakhmaninov's 2nd Piano Concert

Icelandic Anna Thorvaldsdottir is one of classical music's brightest superstars right now, and the Odense Symphony Orchestra has made a big splash by, together with the BBC Proms, San Francisco Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, commissioning a monumental cello concerto by the uncompromising sound designer. The work was premiered last year in the US and at the BBC Proms, and the review from there reads: “Thorvaldsdottir's new cello concerto, Before we fall , is a hit, both sonically and intellectually… Her sound world, delicate and massive at the same time, is like no other. And Johannes Moser plays throughout with both nerve-wracking splendor and fierce intimacy.”

Mahlers 4.

There is a power older than time itself. A power that summons heroes, brings ancient kingdoms to life, but also allows shadows to move into the heart of even the bravest soul. It is the power of adventure.

Fantasy Concert

That's what it says on our website, and it's true, but the small text doesn't reveal how OS has captivated the audience, provided intense experiences, invited them to quiet moments with soloists and conductors from all over the world and lifted the roof of the concert hall. It also doesn't tell us about our work with young talents, concerts for and with children of all ages and collaborations with, for example, Odense Theatre, the Royal Theatre's Ballet School, the region's high schools, the Carl Nielsen Museum and others.

Our 80th Birthday Concert

Grab your favorite stuffed animal or teddy bear and come with us toTeddy bear concert.

Teddy Bear Concert– Autumn

Sunday Matinee

The Conservatory Concert Hall

There are not enough superlatives in the language to describe Brahms' piano trios! As is well known, there is no such thing as bad music by Brahms – anything that did not live up to his extremely high standards was thrown into the wood-burning oven before anyone could discover it. And the three piano trios stand as an absolute, chamber music milestone in the Romantic era. The third and last in C minor from 1886 is a work of intense, emotional depth and shows the experienced, bearded master's explosively dramatic and lyrically singable genius.

Sunday Matinee

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