The SWR Symphonieorchester presents an exhilarating series of concerts this January, blending timeless symphonies with cultural festivities. The highlight is the maestro Jonathan Nott conducting works by Szymanowski, Zemlinsky, and Tchaikovsky, paired with the enchanting piano of Francesco Piemontesi. This orchestral journey spans notable venues and celebrates the 100-year legacy of Pierre Boulez, alongside spirited concerts featuring the beloved works of Brahms and Strauss. Join us as we dive into this rich tapestry of symphonic experiences and cultural reflections.

SWR Symphonieorchester: A Celebration of Symphonic Masterpieces and Cultural Heritage

The SWR Symphonieorchester, led by the esteemed conductor Jonathan Nott, presents an engaging series of concerts in January 2025. From the powerful symphonies of Szymanowski and Tchaikovsky to the lively pieces of Brahms and Strauss, these events promise to captivate audiences. Highlights include the captivating 'Polyphony X' by Pierre Boulez, with insightful narration from Oscar Jockel. Suitable for all ages, the series also features school and family concerts, making classical music accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

Jonathan Nott and SWR Symphony Orchestra: A Harmonious Journey through Classic Compositions

Throughout February 2025, the SWR Symphonieorchester will captivate audiences with a series of spellbinding concerts. Featuring diverse performances from renowned musicians and conductors, the events span multiple venues across Germany. Attendees will experience the genius of contemporary composers like Johannes Maria Staud, Shostakovich, and Alberto Posadas, among others. With performances ranging from percussion solos to intricate orchestral pieces, this month-long celebration of music promises memorable experiences for lovers of modern and classical compositions alike.

A Symphony of Innovation: Celebrating Contemporary Music with the SWR Symphonieorchester

February promises to be a month of musical splendor as the SWR Symphonieorchester presents an eclectic lineup of concerts. From groundbreaking contemporary compositions to tributes to historic musical movements, audiences are in for an experience that celebrates both innovation and tradition. With performances ranging from the ECLAT Festival Neue Musik to a tribute to Clytus Gottwald’s transformative a cappella arrangements, each event is set to captivate and inspire. Featuring renowned conductors and virtuoso performers, this series of concerts is a testament to the enduring and evolving power of orchestral music.

SWR Symphonieorchester's February Showcase: A Celebration of Innovation and Tradition

March 2025 is a month to remember for music enthusiasts as the SWR Symphonieorchester orchestrates a diverse blend of concerts, from the avant-garde ensemble SPARK to classical and contemporary chamber music, and a riveting rendition of Anton Bruckner's F minor Mass conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado. Each event offers a unique blend of musical prowess, highlighting the talents of renowned performers and introducing audiences to an eclectic mix of compositions that cross genres and generations.

A Symphony of Styles: Exploring SWR Symphonieorchester's March Concert Series

The SWR Symphonieorchester invites you to embark on a captivating journey through the rich landscapes of music and art at Schwetzingen Palace. This event series promises an eclectic mix of performances, featuring young music journalists, a reinterpretation of symphonic masterpieces, and a vibrant celebration of musical virtuosity. From the humorous retelling of Adam and Eve to the intimate expressions of choral settings, this is an invitation to indulge in a celebration of creativity and cultural heritage.

Exploring the Symphony of Emotions at Schwetzingen Palace

June 2025 marks an exciting chapter in Baden-Baden's cultural calendar with the SWR Symphonieorchester orchestrating a symphony of events. Celebrations kick off with the Pentecost Festival, featuring diverse performances from late-night symphonies to chamber music by Ligeti and Ravel. The spotlight shines on Pierre Boulez's centenary, with François-Xavier Roth leading tributes through compositions blending timeless classics with avant-garde experiments. As the month progresses, chamber concerts explore works by Cras, Penderecki, and Koechlin, while an engaging children's concert invites young ones to sing and dance. The celebration crescendoes with Dvořák and Zemlinsky's compositions, conducted by the talented Giedrė Šlekytė.

Baden-Baden's Symphony of Sounds: A June Festival of Masterpieces

In July 2025, the SWR Symphonieorchester presents a captivating series of concerts that bridge cultures, history, and powerful musical expressions. From the evocative strings of Shostakovich to the timeless psalms of King David, and the harmonious blends of Brahms and Strauss, these events promise an eclectic journey through time and sound. Whether you're a student experiencing Brahms for the first time or a seasoned concert-goer delving into the cultural richness of Psalms, there's something for every music enthusiast to savor.

SWR Symphonieorchester's July 2025 Line-up: A Symphony of Psalms and Strings

EPSG:4326

Gastkonzert in Baden-Baden

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Guest Concert in Freiburg

Freiburg Concert Hall

Guest Concert in Stuttgart

Kultur- & Kongresszentrum Liederhalle

Psalms – they have been prayed and sung for almost 3000 years, first by Jews and later by Christians. They can also be found in the Koran. They are poetically bold, visually powerful poems, pleading prayers, dramatic laments, jubilant hymns. And they are all attributed to King David, the defensive and powerful ruler in the mythical early days of Judaism. The oldest psalms go back even further and tell of the time when the now feuding parties had their common cultural and cultic roots. This concert offers both: the passionate drama with the religious Christian-Jewish confession in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and the Baltic Cyrillus Kreek – and the change of perspective when Zad Moultaka, born in Lebanon, and Saed Haddad, who comes from Yemen, deal with these texts.

Psalms

Evangelische Stadtpfarrkirche Gaisburg

Psalms – they have been prayed and sung for almost 3000 years, first by Jews and later by Christians. They can also be found in the Koran. They are poetically bold, visually powerful poems, pleading prayers, dramatic laments, jubilant hymns. And they are all attributed to King David, the defensive and powerful ruler in the mythical early days of Judaism. The oldest psalms go back even further and tell of the time when the now feuding parties had their common cultural and cultic roots. This concert offers both: the passionate drama with the religious Christian-Jewish confession of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and the Baltic Cyrillus Kreek – and the change of perspective when Zad Moultaka, born in Lebanon, and Saed Haddad, who comes from Yemen, deal with these texts.

Basilica of St. Castor

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts works by Strauss and Brahms

Mannheimer Rosengarten

Karlsruhe

Free tickets can be ordered from January 13, 2025. A maximum of two free tickets are available per order. Accompanying persons of groups also receive a free ticket. Please register groups by phone via the SWR Ticket Service on 07221 300 100

Special concert for pupils, students and trainees

Stadtkirche - Evangelische Stadtkirchengemeinde Emmendingen

Line 2: The Noise of Time

Im Wizemann

E-WERK Freiburg e.V.

Free tickets can be ordered from January 13, 2025. A maximum of two free tickets are available per order. Accompanying persons of groups also receive a free ticket. Please register groups by phone via the SWR Ticket Service on 07221 300 100.

Jean-Guihen Queyras spielt Werke von Dvořák und Zemlinsky

2025 stellt für das Kunstmuseum Stuttgart ein doppeltes Jubiläum dar: 100 Jahre Sammlung und 20 Jahre Museumsneubau am Stuttgarter Schlossplatz. Auch die Kammerkonzerte der SWR Vokalensembles finden seit Eröffnung des Neubaus regelmäßig dort statt. Grund genug für ein Geburtstagskonzert, in dem einerseits Komponistenjubilare und Kompositionsjubiläen des Jahres 2025 beleuchtet werden, andererseits auch die Sonderausstellung zum Doppeljubiläum des Kunstmuseums integriert wird. Lassen wir uns überraschen!

Kammerkonzert: Hebet die Gläser

Art Museum Stuttgart

Giedrė Šlekytė dirigiert Werke von Dvořák und Zemlinsky

Konzerthaus Dortmund

veranstaltung

Academy of Arts Hanseatenweg

Giedrė Šlekytė conducts works by Dvořák and Zemlinsky

We sing when we're feeling good. But even better: singing puts us in a good mood. The four singers of the SWR Vokalensemble and their pianist are also in a good mood at this concert. In tailcoats and top hats, they invite their young audience to listen, sing along, dance along and solve puzzles with hits from the Comedian Harmonists and evergreens such as "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus". Because, as the lyrics of the sing-along song say: "Singing is fun for us, singing is good for us, singing makes us smart and is healthy!" There's nothing to add to that.

Music Education: Children's Concert

Kursaal

Chamber Concert: Works by Cras, Penderecki and Koechlin

Palacio Nuevo de Stuttgart

Baden-Baden

Pierre Boulez would have turned 100 this year. The Baden-Baden Festival Hall is celebrating the city's famous honorary citizen in several concerts - this one is certainly one of the highlights. Two "young" works by Pierre Boulez meet Anton Bruckner's great last symphony. It remained unfinished, but opens the door wide to modernity. Pierre Boulez greatly appreciated Bruckner, often conducted him and played a key role in making Bruckner one of the recognized great symphonists today. In addition, "Figures - Doubles - Prismes" by Boulez can be heard. The title of the work says it all: figures are varied, doubled. In the final section, "Prismes", the previous work appears in a new light, a kind of retrospective on the early work in 1957, re-examined in 1968. Then a vocal work by Pierre Boulez: The poems of EE Cummings inspired him to an experiment. Cummings used language beyond its meaning as material for new, complex and ambiguous language compositions. Boulez has transferred the form and structure of these poems into music with his own sovereign mastery, combining text and music into an exciting and poetic whole.

Guest concert: Pierre Boulez 100

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Pierre Boulez would have turned 100 this year. The Baden-Baden Festival Hall is celebrating the city's famous honorary citizen in several concerts - this one is certainly one of the highlights. Two "young" works by Pierre Boulez meet Anton Bruckner's great last symphony. It remained unfinished, but opens the door wide to modernity. Pierre Boulez greatly appreciated Bruckner, often conducted him and played a key role in making Bruckner one of the recognized great symphonists today. There will also be "Figures - Doubles - Prismes" by Boulez. The title of the work says it all: figures are varied, doubled. In the final section, "Prismes", the previous work appears in a new light, a kind of retrospective on the early work in 1957, re-examined in 1968. Then a vocal work by Pierre Boulez: The poems of EE Cummings inspired him to conduct an experiment. Cummings used language beyond its meaning as material for new, complex and ambiguous language compositions. Boulez has transferred the form and structure of these poems into music with his own sovereign mastery, combining text and music into an exciting and poetic whole.

Whitsun Festival: François-Xavier Roth conducts works by Boulez and Bruckner

Pentecost Festival: Chamber Concert

Pentecost Festival: Late Night

Whitsun Festival: François-Xavier Roth conducts Boulez, Andre, Poppe and Ravel

What do we feel when nature awakens in spring, during a summer thunderstorm or when we look at a grey winter sky full of white snowflakes? No composer shows how these feelings can sound as convincingly as Antonio Vivaldi. But how can what moves us be translated into movement? Together with the choreographer Mourad Merzouki and dancers from the Compagnie Käfig, the French ensemble Le Concert de la Loge brings Vivaldi's works, including the four concertos entitled The Four Seasons, to dance. Moving sounds, played on historical instruments, create moving scenes in which the solo violin becomes the heroine. Notes come together to form chords, people to form groups. Music and dance become a theatre full of dazzling colours, shapes and moments of happiness, in which birds sing, winds blow, farmers dance and even a dog barks. After 20 enthusiastically celebrated performances, the Vivaldi success story stops in Schwetzingen. Let yourself be carried away!

Le Concert de la Loge · Company Cage

Rococo Theater

Lars Reichow's monthly musical review in the SWR Kultur Musikstunde is cult. What has happened in music life in the past few weeks? What moved people? On the last Saturday of every month, the specialist in musical humor asks these and other questions. This time he is once again presenting his monthly review live at the Schwetzinger SWR Festival.

The Musical Monthly Revue

Hall Schwetzingen Castle

The members of the Azahar Ensemble all come from Spain - but what does that mean? Spain is more than just castanets, fandango and flamenco. The country consists of different regions with very different cultures, and with a corresponding panoramic view, the five musicians on flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon want to introduce themselves and their country in this night concert. Their program ranges from Catalonia to Galicia to Andalusia, from sacred music of the 16th century to chamber music of the mid-20th century. You can hear arrangements of folk songs, a fantasia after Domenico Scarlatti by Miquel Ramos, and we get to know two composers with the surname Turina, a grandfather and his grandson. Grandfather Joaquín pays homage to his birthplace Seville in his Opus 2, grandson José Luis has written a virtuoso wind quintet entitled Quinteto de Agua , and the Azahar Ensemble will do everything in its power to make the premiere of this entertaining piece a lavish sound festival.

Spanish Night

Schwetzingen Castle

"Who of us doesn't know it: longing - this painful desire for something that is unattainable or not yet there; for a state, a thing, a loved one? Longing is a very German word for which there are no precise equivalents in other languages, but there are numerous pieces of music and styles that capture this feeling in sound. In their program, which they conceived together for the Schwetzinger SWR Festival 2025, the ensemble SPARK and the countertenor Valer Sabadus devote themselves entirely to this multifaceted emotion. You can hear seductive, yearning instrumental and vocal music, created between the early 18th and the early 21st century. Handel lets the birds sing, Schubert longs and suffers, Vivaldi contributes numerous secondary frictions, Bach enjoys grazing sheep and lets Zion sing joyfully, fireflies glow, Michael Nyman even makes a melodica sound seductive, people dance tango, and at the end we can ask ourselves with Barry Manilow: Could it be magic ?

Valer Sabadus & SPARK

Five people, three works and many new listening impressions - all of this is what the "Musical Quintet" offers. The pieces are fixed, but the guests do not know which recordings will be played: blind tasting, in other words! Also present: the Mainz pianist and jazz professor Sebastian Sternal. He improvises on the piano on the selected pieces and joins in the conversation.

The Musical Quintet

What does artificial intelligence (AI) sound like? Can you hear and feel when music has been composed by computer software rather than a human? And if so: are the differences more easily recognized through analysis or through emotional immersion, and how exactly do you determine them? This concert is an experimental setup. It puts extremes side by side.

Franz Ensemble

Schloss Schwetzingen

In 2023, Raphaela Gromes released a CD with only works by female composers: Femmes . Now, together with pianist Julian Riem, she is adding the male side. Beethoven's variations on Mozart's Bei Männer, Welche Liebe Gefühl , testify to the attraction between the poles. The cello sonata by Marie Helene Liebmann, born in Berlin in 1795, is also about love: the emotional piece was written around the time of her marriage, and the final movement is a variation of the great seduction duet by Mozart's womanizer Don Giovanni with Zerlina: La ci darem la mano . The combination of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms in the second part of the program speaks for itself - even though Clara dedicated her three romances to the violinist Joseph Joachim and even though Brahms' passionately mournful second cello sonata deals with the rejection by the alto Helene Spieß. Johannes Wiedenhofer, who despite his youth is already celebrated in the first classical league (BR Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle), sets a contemporary accent

Raphaela Gromes & Julian Riem

Following the matinee "Man and Woman and Woman and Man", the festival will meet with the artists one last time at the bar of the Schwetzinger Kurfürstenstube and talk to them about music

Kurfürstenstube

On selected days, the festival is “With the star at the bar” in the Schwetzinger Kurfürstenstube and talks to him about music. Reservations can be made by phone: 06202 / 933020

Four saxophones fill rooms. Their sound is rich, loud, and colorful. As a mini big band, they can replace an orchestra, and that's exactly what they do here. You can hear cello concertos and orchestral works arranged for cello, piano, and saxophone quartet. Schwetzingen artist in residence Raphaela Gromes takes on the string part, arranger Julian Riem sits at the grand piano, and the four spirited wind players of the Signum Saxophone Quartet, founded in 2016, ensure that the music not only sounds beautiful, but also explodes at times. For example, when the forest witch Baba Yaga swings herself on her broom in Anatoly Lyadov's tone poem. During the long clarinet glissando at the beginning of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue . In Bernstein's groovy Mambo . Or during the musical shared apartment of rock, jazz, Vivaldi, and Schubert in Friedrich Gulda's Cello Concerto. As one of the Signum musicians once said: “You have to give the audience your whole heart, your whole soul.” Trigger warning: You might leave the concert hall dancing.

Raphaela Gromes · Julian Riem · Signum Saxophone Quartet

Seduction - serious or playful? When you talk about seduction, you can actually start with Adam and Eve. Myths and human stories are full of seduction and are rarely harmless. Whether it's Samson and Delilah or the Pied Piper of Hamelin - seduction can be experienced as seductive and yet still lead in the wrong direction. In the game of power, success, lust and love, seduction is a powerful art. And it is least approachable with the mind alone. But maybe that's the beauty of it.

One theme, one piano, three people

Sophie Pacini & Matthias Warkus

Following the music consultation hour "One theme, one piano, three people", the festival will be with the artists at the bar of the Schwetzinger Kurfürstenstube and will talk to them about music.

That's unfortunate: If you blow into a saxophone, it immediately sounds like jazz. In 1840, Adolphe Sax actually only wanted to use his glittering reed instrument in the orchestra to close the tonal gap between the oboe and the clarinet. Today, many saxophonists are working hard on their return to classical music - in the case of the Signum Saxophone Quartet, primarily with the help of their own arrangements. Since the four saxophonists repeatedly emphasize how much they have learned from the strings of the Artemis Quartet, we can look forward to their blown version of Dvořák's American string quartet. Erwin Schulhoff, who felt close to Dada, Communism and jazz, was very fond of the saxophone, and so the arrangement of his string pieces op. 14 is just as fitting as the tonal re-dedication of Ástor Piazzolla's Suite del Ángel . After all, Piazzolla is about angels dancing tango. And about an angel who dies (in the final movement, La Muerte del Ángel) – after a fugue, of all things…

Signum Saxophone Quartet

The saxophone can do more than many people believe and know! Today it can be found in jazz and pop, but it was actually invented in the middle of the 19th century as a classical concert instrument: The Frenchman Adolphe Sax wanted to create a bridge between the supple sound of the clarinet and the piercing, nasal sound of the oboe. The Signum Saxophone Quartet features the four most common sizes, from soprano to baritone saxophone. Each instrument is unique, and four of them form a quartet that sometimes sounds like an entire orchestra. In its program for young audiences, whose works the ensemble has arranged for itself, the Signum Saxophone Quartet shows what it takes for instruments and musicians to come together.

sheet metal laboratory

That's unfortunate: If you blow into a saxophone, it immediately sounds like jazz. But in 1840 Adolphe Sax actually only wanted to close the tonal gap between the oboe and the clarinet in the orchestra with his glittering reed instrument. Today, many saxophonists are working hard on their return to classical music - in the case of the Signum Saxophone Quartet, primarily with the help of their own arrangements. Since the four saxophonists repeatedly emphasize how much they have learned from the strings of the Artemis Quartet, we can look forward to their blown version of Dvořák's American string quartet. Erwin Schulhoff, who felt close to Dada, Communism and jazz, was very fond of the saxophone, and so the arrangement of his string pieces op. 14 is just as fitting as the tonal re-dedication of Ástor Piazzolla's Suite del Ángel . After all, Piazzolla is about angels dancing tango. And about an angel who dies (in the final movement, La Muerte del Ángel) – after a fugue, of all things…

Four siblings, a string quartet: can that work? Or, to put it the other way around: when the children of the Russian-French Tchalik family of musicians got angry, loud, maybe even violent, did they cross their bows or play a wild piece of new music together? We don't know the answer, but we will meet the award-winning Quatuor Tchalik live. And with new music, too, which is embedded between works by Mozart and Schubert. The contemporary accent is provided by the German premiere of Scènes de Bal by Thierry Escaich. He is now a well-known French organist and composer, but initially played a lot of tango as an accordionist, and you can hear that in these colorful dance scenes. Most of the time, however, will be taken up by what Schumann once praised as "heavenly lengths": music by Schubert. Death and the Maiden , a piece about transience, composed in the death key of D minor.

Quatuor Tchalik

No means no. Unfortunately, men often do not understand this and continue to use their male power to commit sexual assaults - as in the baroque opera Amor vincitore . A conversation with Stefanie Lohaus, founder of Missy Magazine : Why feminism is stronger than anger. But it is not enough. And what still needs to be fought for urgently.

Discussion of the audio theater "Amor vincitore"

A man who loves a woman; a woman who would rather be alone; a god who shoots arrows; and then: love. At first glance, the plot of the piece, which was composed by the youngest Bach son Johann Christian and which was shown in the Schwetzingen Palace Theater in 1774 after its London premiere, is quite simple. At second glance, it is not - at least that is the opinion of Pauline Jacob and Lisa Florentine Schmalz from the music theater and radio play collective staatsoper24, who are staging the almost forgotten piece as an audio theater together with Sebastian Bauer. Inspired by sculptures in the Schwetzingen Palace Gardens, they playfully look behind the facade of the play about Alcidoro, Dalisa and Amor, asking about the role models of Amor vincitore and about the freedom of desire. The early classical sounds of a piece that falls between two genres (cantata and one-act opera) are contrasted with contemporary sound moments by Patrick Schäfer. Singing is complemented by spoken words. Costumes reflect the imagery of the sculptures in the palace gardens. Julia Lezhneva and Maayan Licht provide seductive sounds in two virtuoso soprano parts together with the ensemble Il Gusto Barocco under Jörg Halubek. A project choir with students from the Mannheim University of Music is also involved. Alongside Johann Christian Bach's colorfully orchestrated music, you can hear breath and wind. It may be that by the end he will have swept some gods off their pedestals. Will the god of love really leave the Rococo theater as a victor?

Amor vincitore

"Laurel sounds, part two. And again, old and new, familiar and rediscovered, are mixed together. Instruments begin to sing, transforming into Mozart's Papageno, Konstanze and Tamino. We meet the American Charles Martin Loeffler, born in Berlin in 1861, whose compositions mainly contain traces of Debussy, Franck and Chausson, but also a little Eastern European folk music. We marvel at the late romantic reed songs of Wagner fan August Klughardt, in which a lot of Fauré can be heard. And we discover Dora Pejačević, daughter of a Croatian count and a Hungarian baroness: a composer who later lived mainly in Dresden and Munich and whose style is close to that of Rachmaninoff. Finally, we also get to know the cellist and composer Alfredo Piatti, who lived in London for a long time and for whom Mendelssohn - so it is said - wanted to write a cello concerto. This never happened; this was probably not due to Piatti, who only died in 1901 at the age of 79.

winner of the ARD Music Competition

Hunting Hall

Chamber Music Hall

"The strings are in tune! Boy, dance in circles. Happy today, overjoyed today, tomorrow gloomy in the old way!" This is how one of the songs that Antonín Dvořák composed in 1880 under the title Gypsy Melodies begins . The text could be the motto for this afternoon, when prizewinners of the ARD competition introduce themselves. Soprano, oboe, cello, piano, viola: highly talented young musicians present themselves with chamber music from the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include arrangements: Dvorák's op. 55 is heard in a version for soprano, cello and piano, Brahms' late clarinet trio in the alternative version for viola. There are also unknown pieces to discover. For example, music by the US composer (and women's rights activist!) Amy Beach. Or a cantata by Paul Hindemith called The Serenades : With this piece, Hindemith wanted to help his wife, an actress, cellist and singer, to overcome her stage fright. The last movement leads into the duet "Ach, when will your blue eye close in my arms". Is this serious?

Ein Mann, der eine Frau liebt; eine Frau, die lieber alleine bleiben möchte; ein Gott, der Pfeile verschießt; und dann: die Liebe. Auf den ersten Blick ist die Handlung des Stücks, das der jüngste Bach-Sohn Johann Christian komponierte und das 1774 nach seiner Londoner Uraufführung im Schwetzinger Schlosstheater gezeigt wurde, ganz einfach. Auf den zweiten Blick ist sie es nicht – finden zumindest Pauline Jacob und Lisa Florentine Schmalz vom Musiktheater- und Hörspielkollektiv staatsoper24, die das nahezu vergessene Stück gemeinsam mit Sebastian Bauer als Hörtheater in Szene setzen. Inspiriert von Skulpturen des Schwetzinger Schlossgartens, schauen sie spielerisch hinter die Fassade des Spiels um Alcidoro, Dalisa und Amor, fragen nach den Rollenbildern von Amor vincitore und nach der Freiheit des Begehrens. Dabei werden die frühklassischen Klänge eines Stücks, das sich gattungsmäßig zwischen zwei Stühle (nämlich Kantate und Operneinakter) setzt, auch mal mit zeitgenössischen Klang-Momenten von Patrick Schäfer kontrastiert. Gesungenes wird durch Gesprochenes ergänzt. Kostüme nehmen die Bildsprache der Skulpturen im Schlossgarten auf. Für verführerische Klänge sorgen Julia Lezhneva und Maayan Licht in zwei virtuosen Sopranpartien gemeinsam mit dem Ensemble Il Gusto Barocco unter Jörg Halubek. Mit dabei ist auch ein Projektchor mit Studierenden der Mannheimer Musikhochschule. Neben Johann Christian Bachs farbig instrumentierter Musik hört man Atem und Wind. Mag sein, dass dieser am Ende einige Götter vom Sockel gefegt haben wird. Ob der Liebesgott das Rokokotheater am Ende wohl wirklich als Sieger verlassen wird?

The recorder used to be considered a stupid piece of wood - a perforated torture stick for children's fingers and parents' ears. Today we know that the recorder can be a virtuoso, beguiling instrument, and the professional musicians who have convinced us of this include the Wildes Holz ensemble, which combines recorder sounds with guitar and double bass. The unusual band has been doing this for a quarter of a century - something that sometimes only amazes them. The program is called Classics , in which Wildes Holz present highlights of their work without any fear of genre, style or genre boundaries. The three musicians involved also talk about their experiences on and off the stage, about bizarre encounters, funny anecdotes and moving moments. With a lot of humor, charm and joy of playing, they take the audience on their very special, enticing wooden path through the wide world of music from Bach to Beethoven and Brahms to ABBA and Michael Jackson.

Wild Wood

The French ensemble Sésame, founded in 2013, sees itself as a mobile task force for chamber music. The five musicians on string instruments and piano love the unusual and experimentation - preferably with contemporary ingredients and also with the help of creative arrangements. This concert only offers the latter: The second encounter between art and cuisine at the Schwetzinger SWR Festival 2025 focuses on the impressionistic French (sound) cuisine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The three musical courses include goose giblets as finger food ( Ma mère l'Oye for piano four hands) and dialogues from a black and white keyboard box to a soufflé with soured strings. The chefs are elderly and experienced, their names are Maurice Ravel, Ernest Chausson and (yes, there is a woman too!) Germaine Tailleferre, and the musical staff promises: The evening will be a feast for all the senses.

Ensemble Sésame

A kiss is: an expression of deep tenderness, muscle work, the exchange of bacteria, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation - and in Iowa it is forbidden if it lasts longer than five minutes. Kisses are ritualized and regulated; they can be a sign of love, subservience, betrayal or even death. Soprano Dorothee Mields and pianist Christine Schornsheim have put together a program of songs and arias full of lip encounters composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. Even the tangent piano used here fits the theme: its sound is created by the interaction of two sticks - one presses, the other dampens. If that isn't a kiss! Here is another appetizer from the song Bevelise and Lysidor by probably the most famous Bach son, the text is by Ewald Christian Kleist: "The man who after the honeymoon / kisses out of love and not out of duty, / ... / who, when her autumn is already approaching, / kisses her as if it were her spring, / is a phoenix that enchants; / it's just a pity that he is rare."

Dorothee Mields & Christine Schornsheim

Some talents burn out early: they are celebrated as long as great art is paired with early youth, after which they are forgotten. This does not apply to the three composers of this evening - with one exception: Clara Schumann was celebrated as a virtuoso during her lifetime, but she did not receive lasting recognition for her compositions until the 20th century. One critic even rejected the review of her 1837 piano concerto "because we are dealing with the work of a lady". Schumann took Mendelssohn's first trio of 1839 as an opportunity to praise his fellow composer as the "Mozart of the 19th century". Clara Schumann wrote her only piano trio in 1845 at the age of 25 - a year before her husband Robert composed his first trio, which was heavily influenced by her work. Lera Auerbach, born in Siberia in 1973 and now living in New York, writes music using what initially seem like traditional means and forms. Her powerful first trio from 1992 gives no indication that we are dealing with the work of a woman.

Raphaela Gromes · Eldbjørg Hemsing · Alexei Volodin

Chamber Concert: Works by Say, Françaix and Dvořák

It is a story about friendship and the power of making music: In the land of oboes and bassoons, everything is fine. People play, laugh, argue and make up again. But suddenly a thundering storm breaks out: everything freezes and becomes quiet. Then someone comes along who sounds completely different, completely strange and new. Can this newcomer break the rigidity and create a new harmony? And can the message he brings with him in a secret language be deciphered?

sound explorer

Family Concert: Klangfarben

Museum Pfalzgalerie Lautre

An era before the dawn of civilization, a world in harmony: that is the Golden Age , which ancient mythology uses to describe the peaceful, original state of humanity. Later, the term was used to describe many cultural heydays. In English music, it coincides with the reign of Elizabeth I in the second half of the 17th century. The Golden Age program by Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva goes beyond this framework, supplementing English ayres from the Renaissance with baroque arias from France and Italy, among other places. The 18th century was also quite golden. Lezhneva's voice itself is also golden: the New York Times described it as "angelic," and the artistry of the singer, who has a particular love of baroque music, is praised everywhere. She sings even the most absurd coloraturas with striking naturalness. And she always has her most important motto with her. "The voice," says Julia Lezhneva, "is the sound of the soul."

Julia Lezhneva & Luca Pianca

Yiran Zhao, born in China and based in Berlin, is a composer, performer, audio designer and sound artist. The use of light and shadow is as much a part of her vocabulary as performative elements and visual media. The Briton Christian Mason uses a text by Paul Griffiths on the (light-related) schooling behavior of fish for his new work "The Oddity Effect". Both works, as well as the premiere of a prize-winning piece from the ACHT BRÜCKEN composition competition, will be conducted by Ustina Dubitsky, who attracted attention through her successful participation in the Besançon conducting competition and winning the "La Maestra" conducting competition.

Gastkonzert: The Oddity Effect

Cologne Philharmonie

Quiet inside, loud outside. String instruments inside, wind instruments outside, especially those that were particularly en vogue in the Baroque era: oboes. The French-Italian ensemble La Petite Écurie (three Baroque oboes, bassoon and percussion instruments), founded in 2018, and its repertoire are in the great tradition of outdoor sound festivities that were fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially at French and English courts. The name of the troupe refers to the large stable in Versailles, where not only horses were ridden, but music was also made (often both at the same time). But this evening's program has little to do with volume. La Petite Écurie span a wide range of emotions and sounds; they dream of love with Henry Purcell's Fairy Queen , give their hearts away to the sounds of Bach's St. Matthew Passion - and finally cry the most beautiful tears of sound in music history with Handel's Rinaldo . Short electronic recordings and texts connect the pieces of music and tell of the different faces of love.

La Petite Écurie & Miriam Feuersinger

love song request concert

Love, music, improvisational talent and your wishes - these are the ingredients of this concert. And this is how it works: You tell us your favourite love song (in advance by email or simply by calling it out during the concert), and four young musicians bring your wishes to the stage with passion and imagination - the soprano Clara Barbier Serrano and the pianist Joanna Kacperek, who have just won second prize at the International Song Competition, fulfill song requests in the original and with text. The brothers Lionel and Demian Martin improvise on top with cello and piano, transforming the happiness of love, sex appeal and heartbreak into tangos, fugues or waltzes and letting the melodies wander through different eras and styles - sometimes with voluptuous pathos, sometimes breathtakingly virtuosic, rocky or baroque. A high of musical endorphins for couples, singles, new or long-term lovers!

Lionel & Demian Martin, Clara Barbier Serrano, Joanna Kacperek

Long before Mozart's divertimenti and serenade music, wind players loved to play music in the fresh air, and if the weather plays along, this will also be the case at the walking concert of the oboe band La Petite Ècurie. And with good reason - after all, the concert is in the Schwetzingen Palace Gardens, where Verschaffelt's sculptures of the river gods of the Rhine and Moselle by the lake widen the view towards the neighboring European countries. These are the focus of the program Oboes on a European Tour, which presents music of the High Baroque in several national styles. The present-day countries of France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Austria are the stops on a walk that playfully circles around the most fascinating contradictions of Baroque music: only the basso continuo as a fixed rule enables the greatest possible melodic freedom; as a unifying and binding idea, it also makes individual national styles possible. And who invented it? The Florentines!

Oboen auf Europareise

Schwetzingen Palace Garden

La Petite Écurie

Her real name is Alisa Scetinina. She initially wanted to be a dancer and therefore studied ballet in Munich. After five years at the Munich and Stuttgart State Operas, she began studying at the Stuttgart Academy of Arts and devoted herself to music on the side. In addition to the violin and guitar, she discovered her passion for music production, especially on analogue devices. Today, the Latvian-born artist offers acoustic adventures beyond all categories and genres under the stage name Gaisma. Gaisma's art worlds move between choreography and improvisation: wild, virtuosic, immersive, rousing. Together with DJ Henrique, who alternates with her, Gaisma brings club and classical music together this evening in a way that is sure to get under your skin and into your legs.

Gaisma & DJ Henrique

BASEMENT - The Club

Julian Prégardien, Kristian Bezuidenhout & Julia Nachtmann

Place of longing – role model – victim: the relationship between humans and nature is complex. Per Nørgård uses texts by Rainer Maria Rilke to search for a connection to nature in sound. Christian Mason composes according to the principles of swarm intelligence, observes the social strategies of fish and birds for living and surviving and asks: is adaptation the best survival strategy for us humans too? The willows in Johannes Maria Staud's choral work can tell you a thing or two about this, as they were witnesses to the death marches that passed by them. And the Korean composer Younghi Pagh-Paan's existential choral work tells of the earth that means home. It is about rural exodus, exploitation and the radical restructuring of Korean society to the point of "loss of the soul".

Guest Concert: Nature and Man

Theaterhaus Stuttgart

Museum Frieder Burda

„Liebe! Liebe! Lass mich los!“, fleht 1775 ein Mann, der heute als bedeutendster deutscher Dichter gilt. Das Gedicht, in dem Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ein „liebes, loses Mädchen“ beschreibt, das ihn „so wider Willen“ festhalte, trägt den Titel Neue Liebe, neues Leben, und seine Zeilen sind keineswegs bloße Fantasie, sondern Ausdruck des eigenen Inneren. Hin- und hergeworfen zwischen Liebessehnen und der Unfähigkeit, sich dauerhaft zu binden, hat sich Goethe in zahlreiche Frauen verliebt, hat sie begehrt, dann wieder verlassen, ist für neue entflammt und hat über sie und seine Gefühle unzählige Worte auf Papier geschrieben. Wer aber waren die Frauen, an die er sein Herz verlor? Konnte Goethe überhaupt jemanden anderes lieben als sich selbst, waren Frauen für ihn womöglich reine Projektionsflächen? Der Tenor Julian Prégardien ist im Museum einem Gemälde begegnet, das ihn tief beeindruckte: blind spot von Margit Jäschke. Das Bild zeigt drei Frauen in langen, farbigen Kleidern, die sich vor einem Tasteninstrument versammelt haben. Ihre Oberkörper und vor allem ihre Gesichter verdeckt ein flickenartiger weißer Fleck. Wer waren Goethes Frauen? Wie haben sie die Beziehung zu ihm gesehen, und welche Künste haben sie im Schatten des großen Dichters ausgeübt? The blind spot ist ein zweiteiliger Abend mit Liedern und Gedichten u. a. von Franz Schubert, Fanny Hensel, Louise Reichardt und Bettina von Arnim. Im ersten Teil hören wir Vertonungen von Versen, in denen der junge Dichter seine drei Liebesbeziehungen in Weimar verarbeitet. Im zweiten Teil bekommen die Frauen um Goethe, speziell die Künstlerinnen, eine Bühne. Die Schauspielerin Julia Nachtmann ist hier dabei, und wir erfahren staunend, dass beileibe nicht alles so war, wie Goethe es sich erträumte. Oder herbeidichtete. Schon der deutsche Dichterfürst hat virtuos das beherrscht, was wir heute Mansplaining nennen. Was für eine Entdeckung!.

Lunchtime concert: Michel Mariotti conducts works by Brahms and Dvořák

Following the night music "Do you love Wagner?" the festival will be with the Mike Svoboda Quartet at the bar of the Schwetzinger Kurfürstenstube and will talk to them about music.

Lieben Sie Wagner?

After his opera "Adam and Eve", resident artist Mike Svoboda is a guest at the festival with another amusing program.

Do you love Wagner?

Following "The blind spot I: Goethe and the women", the festival will be with the artists at the bar of the Schwetzinger Kurfürstenstube and will talk to them about music.

Julian Prégardien & Kristian Bezuidenhout

Do you love Wagner? · Mike Svoboda

"Love! Love! Let me go!" pleaded a man in 1775 who is today considered the most important German poet. The poem in which Johann Wolfgang von Goethe describes a "sweet, loose girl" who held him "against her will" is entitled New Love, New Life , and its lines are by no means mere fantasy, but an expression of his own inner life. Torn between longing for love and the inability to commit to a permanent relationship, Goethe fell in love with numerous women, desired them, then left them again, was inflamed by new ones and wrote countless words on paper about them and his feelings. But who were the women he lost his heart to? Could Goethe actually love anyone other than himself? Were women perhaps just surfaces for him to project himself into? The tenor Julian Prégardien came across a painting in a museum that made a deep impression on him: blind spot by Margit Jäschke. The picture shows three women in long, colorful dresses gathered in front of a keyboard instrument. Their upper bodies and especially their faces are covered by a patchy white spot. Who were Goethe's women? How did they view their relationship with him, and what arts did they practice in the shadow of the great poet? The blind spot is a two-part evening with songs and poems by Franz Schubert, Fanny Hensel, Louise Reichardt and Bettina von Arnim, among others. In the first part we hear musical settings of verses in which the young poet deals with his three love affairs in Weimar. In the second part the women around Goethe, especially the artists, are given a stage. The actress Julia Nachtmann is here, and we are amazed to learn that not everything was as Goethe dreamed it would be. Or as he made it up. The German poet laureate was already a master of what we today call mansplaining. What a discovery!

Gastkonzert: Natur und Mensch

Alte Oper

“Minne” is not just love. The medieval term encompasses much more. It describes different types of human affection as well as the relationship between man and God, and there is probably no one who wrote as many Minnelieder in the latter sense as the Benedictine abbess, mystic, poet, musician, scientist and saint Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century. The Per-Sonat ensemble, a special troupe for music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, founded and directed by mezzo-soprano Sabine Lutzenberger in 2008, brings together songs by Hildegard with works by the minnesinger Heinrich von Meißen (known as “Frauenlob”), who lived at the turn of the 14th century and was considered the king of the minnesingers, in Speyer Cathedral. The focus of the evening will be Marian songs and musical settings of the biblical Song of Songs, accompanied by fiddle, lutes and bagpipes

Minne and Maria

Crypt

It grooves, rattles, swings and hisses. Musicians explore hidden worlds of sound. They discover music to which plants and animals also contribute. Playing with and against each other, they explore human characteristics. And from there they reach the strange world of machines and artificial intelligence (AI). What do people do there? And what does the sound installation "Robopercussion" want at the interface of art and research? Together with the audience, the ensemble feels its way through a fascinating world of rousing rhythms and surprising melodies in the field of tension between nature, man and machine. Strong emotions, automated processes, electronic extensions and the joy of playing combine in this concert to create a cosmos of its own: sound!

Sound!

Historical instruments, gut strings and old bows are not everything. For the British Consone Quartet, founded in 2015 at the Royal College of Music in London, the name says it all: the Latin word "consone" means unison. Harmony is the goal, even for the rarity of the evening, Emilie Mayer's G major quartet. How the harmony will sound when Kristian Bezuidenhout stirs it up on the fortepiano will be shown in Mozart arrangements. First you can hear the C major piano concerto in pocket format, then the quintet KV 452, which was actually composed for piano and wind instruments. Mozart himself considered this piece "the best thing I have ever written in my life." Violins, viola and cello will implement the then new wind instrument sounds with their means - up to the Larghetto, in which Mozart echoes the register aria from his later Don Giovanni . Compared to the conquest of the many women on the womanizer's list, success with the Schwetzingen audience should be easy.

Kristian Bezuidenhout & Consone Quartet

Venus or Elisabeth? Eroticism or love of God? Poor knight Tannhäuser simply cannot decide, and although everyone shouts "Hallelujah!" at the end of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser , the hero finds no peace. His only option is death. The folk poetry on which Wagner's opera is based has one of the most torn heroes in literary history, and the two seductive poles between which he moves form the framework of this concert with arrangements for two pianos. Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen begin with a lot of Bach. Mozart's C minor Fantasy KV 475 and Sonata facile (which, by the way, is not at all easy to play) create an ideal transition to Wagner's famous Bacchanale because they are heavenly and earthly; and to one of the most beautiful deaths in music history. In his arrangement of Isolde's Liebestod, Max Reger dispenses with all opulence - and thus gives the heroine's farewell to life, love and sensuality a touch of comforting peace of mind.

Piano duo Tal & Groethuysen

Bas Wiegers conducts works by LutosŁawski, Saariaho and Debussy

Daycare concert: What does ... sound like?

Bas Wiegers conducts works by Lutosławski, Sariaaho and Debussy

The trio Johannes Brahms - Robert Schumann - Clara Schumann has inspired each other artistically and, in some parts, erotically since 1853. But this concert is not just about the question of who, why and whether at all. Rather, the alliance of three expands into a pentagonal story. Mendelssohn is added, whom Brahms greatly admired. And the composer Aribert Reimann, who died in 2024 and who felt a close connection with Schumann, also joins for a short time. Schumann's first and Brahms' third string quartets form the framework for a program rich in relationships, the intertwined paths of which are lined with excerpts from Peter Härtling's Schumann novel and letters from the Schumann couple, read by the actress Martina Gedeck. The Schumann Quartet is responsible for the music, although it is not named that because of Robert or Clara, but because of the three brothers Erik, Ken and Mark who play along. The violist is an external player, but that is another (square) story.

SWR Symphonieorchester

17 - 24 May, 2026

Gastkonzert in Baden-Baden

Jan 18, 2026

Guest Concert in Freiburg

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SWR Symphonieorchester