At the turn of the year: highlights from operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jacques Offenbach, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet and Richard Wagner.

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New Year's Concert

The Staatstheater Stuttgart

Franz Schubert composed his String Trio in B flat major, which, like his Symphony in B minor, remained a fragment. Together with his early string quartets, the string trio was also intended for music-making within the Schubert household: his brothers and his father played violins and cello, he himself played the viola. Some 60 years later, in his first string quartet Bedřich Smetana looks back on his life and describes both the happy moments of his youth and the "inevitable fate" of his deafness. The jubilant movement of the finale breaks off abruptly and a high note is heard in the 1st violin, with which Smetana translated the beginning of his hearing loss into music. The quartet ends in a resigned mood, without a glimmer of hope. Russian Late Romantic Anton Arensky broke up this classical quartet formation with his String Quartet No. 2, in which he played the cello instead of the violin. He composed the quartet in 1894 in memory of his deceased friend Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky. In addition to funeral hymns from the Russian Orthodox liturgy, the quartet also contains variations on Tchaikovsky’s children’s song Legenda.

4. Chamber Music Concert

Liederhalle Cultural and Congress Center

The Goldberg Variations for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, published in 1741, represent the height of the Baroque art of variation and are performed in a version for string trio in this concert. The opening Aria is followed by a total of 30 variations based on the bass line introduced at the beginning. In the last variation, Bach contrapuntally interweaves the folk songs Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gewest and Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben and combines them with the bass of the Aria. Artistic variations and the use of a simple song can also be found in Joseph Haydn's so-called "Kaiserquartett" dating from 1797. The 65-year-old composer incorporated his previously composed song Gott! erhalte Franz, den Kaiser into the second movement of this string quartet, which is one of his late works. This melody, on which Haydn based four variations, is known today primarily as the German national anthem. Around 40 years after the string quartet was composed, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote his Lied der Deutschen, the third verse of which now serves as the text of the German national anthem and is sung to Haydn’s popular melody.

3. Chamber Music Concert

Esther Dierkes and Björn Bürger present a program of songs in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Götz Payer on the piano.

2nd Song Recital

The members of the International Opera Studio present a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompagnied by Vlad Iftinca.

1. Song Recital

Louise Farrenc was the first woman to receive a piano professorship at the renowned Paris Conservatory. Born in 1804 into a family of artists belonging to the Parisian Bohème, she was supported in her musical career from a young age. Her popularity as a composer was rather unusual in the male-dominated musical world of the 19th century. Her music was performed, published and discussed in reviews. Encouraged by the premiere of her Nonet, in which the star violinist Joseph Joachim was performing, she insisted upon receiving the same salary from the conservatory as her male colleagues - with success. Clara Schumann was only 15 years younger than Farrenc and her Trio op. 17 from 1846 is her greatest work of chamber music. As her husband Robert had not yet composed a classical trio at the time, she was able to express herself freely in this area without being exposed to the often inhibiting comparison with her husband. Her trio captivates with expressive themes and a touching melancholy. The concert opens with the yearning sounds of the trio composed by Charles Koechlin around 1900, who was a fellow student of Maurice Ravel at the famous Paris Conservatory.

2. Chamber Music Concert

It starts with blue: with water and the sky. But blue also continues with toys, toothpaste and the odd flower. Together we welcome what is perhaps the most beautiful colour of all - a musical meditation in German and Arabic.

Hello Blue

Nord / JOiN (Junge Oper im Nord)

In his Serenade No. 6 dating from 1950, the American composer Vincent Persichetti combines two string instruments with a trombone, sometimes engaging them in an animated conversation, sometimes in a dreamy indulgence. This piece is followed by Gustav Mahler’s piano quartet, which was composed during his student days and is his only surviving work of chamber music. Apart from sketches for a scherzo only the first movement of the work has survived, which in this concert meets Alfred Schnittke’s piano quartet referring to Mahler’s quartet fragment. In this work, composed in 1988, Schnittke attempts to "remember something that did not come about (...), a sound quality that could not be thought through to the end." Mahler’s quartet sound shimmers through dimly, but is strongly alienated by clusters and polyphonic structures. The open end also gives Schnittke’s quartet the character of a fragment. The final piece is the colorful String quartet in D major by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, marked by its turn-of-the-century harmonies.

1. Chamber Music Concert

Fall asleep at the opera? Yes. A relaxed ambient techno concert not only for small children, but also for parents who need a break.

Tea&Techno

Enjoy a musical lunch break in the foyer of the Opera House - personally designed by the musicians of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart and the Staatsopernchor Stuttgart.

Lunchtime Concert

In the foyer of the opera house, Claudia Muschio, Itzeli Jáuregui, Charles Sy and Johannes Kammler present an entertaining and varied evening of songs from the Italian bel canto repertoire. The ensemble singers will be accompanied by Vlad Iftinca on the piano.

3. Song Recital

In the touching piece Music for Fleeting Birds, written in 1977 for wind quintet, the Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks gives nature a voice, as he does in many of his other works. Some of the sounds are reminiscent of the calls of migratory birds flying away, heralding the darkness and cold of winter in Latvia. Niels Gade, one of the most important Danish composers of the Romantic period, who was a close friend of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann, follows. The latter recognized a "decidedly distinct Nordic character" in Gade’s music. His novelettes for piano trio were particularly popular among lovers of sophisticated domestic music. Carl Nielsen, one of Gade's students, whose wind quintet from 1922 forms the conclusion of the concert, was also known as the "Danish Strauss" due to his symphonic works. The Trio by Trygve Madsen, one of Norway’s most versatile contemporary composers, whose music is also influenced by jazz, blends in between the two Danish composers.

5. Chamber Music Concert

The violist Rebecca Clark, born in London in 1886, is one of England’s most important composers. When she anonymously submitted her Sonata for Viola and Piano, which is characterized by dense harmonies, intoxicating emotions and a high degree of virtuosity, to a competition in 1919, the jury assumed that Maurice Ravel was the composer. The fact that a woman was behind such a phenomenal work was inconceivable to the jury at that time. Almost a century later, Thomas Adès, one of the most frequently performed composers of our time, was also born in London. In his piece Catch from 1991, he plays with different combinations of the four instruments. The clarinet takes on the role of a wanderer: sometimes it is far away from the other instruments, sometimes it joins them. Adès’ piece is followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet, which premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater in 1800. Its six-movement structure goes back to courtly light music, but the symphonic features go far beyond. The work was already a public favorite in Beethoven’s time.

6. Chamber Music Concert

A musical adventure with Robin Hood and his companions from Sherwood Forest - colorfully set to music by Thomas Dorsch, excitingly narrated by Jens Wawrczeck, known from the radio play series The three Investigators

Robin Hood

After the premiere of his Quintet in E flat major at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father Leopold that the new work received "extraordinary acclaim" and added: "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." Free from any genre traditions, he achieved a congenial success with the innovative combination of four wind instruments and a piano. Mozart uses the five instruments, whose voices are closely interwoven, in a very nuanced manner. The Piano quintet by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók also premiered in Vienna, albeit 120 years later. Shortly before, he had completed his composition studies with Brahms’ friend Hans Koessler in Budapest. In addition to the clear influence of Johannes Brahms, some of Bartók’s individual traits can also be recognized in this late Romantic work, such as the tonal steps and rhythms derived from Hungarian folk music, which are characteristic of his later style. Between the two quintets, Bartók’s captivating Romanian Folk Dances can be heard in a version for flute and percussion.

7. Chamber Music Concert

Rachael Wilson presents a recital program in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, accompanied by Simon Lepper.

4. Song Recital

Galería Estatal de Stuttgart

Ida Ränzlöv presents a recital program in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, accompanied by Cornelius Meister.

5. Song Recital

Atalla Ayan presents a recital program in the foyer of the opera house, accompanied by Alan Hamilton.

6th Song Recital

A (hopefully!) balmy summer evening and the most wonderful music in a relaxed atmosphere: the Sparda Klassik Open Air will take place for the second time on the Killesberg in July 2025. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart and GMD Cornelius Meister present an entertaining yet challenging program for the whole family. This year, we have invited over 1,000 primary school children from the "SingGrund" project (singing elementary schools Filderstadt) as special guests. A program by Monika Grauschopf, who, like us, is convinced that singing together is one of the best ways to make this world a better place - and therefore helps every primary school child in Filderstadt to sing for an hour a week. This year, their big final concert is the prologue to our summer concert.

Staatsorchester Stuttgart

Jan 8, 2025

3. Song Recital

Oct 9, 2024 - May 26, 2025

Lunchtime Concert

Oct 13, 2024 - Apr 8, 2025

Tea&Techno

Feb 12, 2025

5. Chamber Music Concert

Mar 5, 2025

6. Chamber Music Concert

Jan 1, 2025

New Year's Concert

Dec 18, 2024

4. Chamber Music Concert

Staatsorchester Stuttgart