Sun, Nov. 23, 2025, 11.00 am | Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall

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3rd Philharmonic Concert

MAHLER / MILCH-­SHERIFF

conductor: Adam Fischer
Mezzo-soprano: Annika Schlicht
Baritone: Benjamin Appl
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Adam Fischer

conductor

Birthplace:
Budapest, Hungary

Studies:
Composition and conducting in Budapest as well as in Vienna with the legendary Hans Swarowsky

Prizes:
International Classical Music Award for lifetime achievement (2022), Wolf Prize in Music for his outstanding artistic achievements and his humanitarian commitment (2018), International Classical Music Award for the complete recording of all Mozart symphonies (2015), two Echo Klassik-Awards for the recordings of all Joseph Haydn symphonies (2006 and 2008), "Conductor of the Year" for his production "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (Opernwelt-Magazin, 2002), two Grand Prix du Disque awards (1980 and 1987), et al.

Adam Fischer is an honorary member of the Wiener Staatsoper and the Musikverein für Steiermark in Graz. He is the bearer of the Order of Dannebrog awarded by the Danish Queen and was awarded the title of Honorary Professor by order of the Austrian Federal President.

Repertoire:
Extensive German and Italian opera repertoire

Career stages:
Founder and Artistic Director of the Budapest Wagner Days (since 2008), Principal Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker (since 2015) and Artistic Advisor of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Chief Conductor of the Danish Chamber Orchestra (since 1998), Founder of the Haydn Days in Eisenstadt (founded in 1987) and founder as well as honorary conductor of the Haydn Philharmonie, Artistic director of the Budapest Opera (2007 to 2010), general music director in Mannheim (2000-2005), Kassel (1987 to 1992), Freiburg (1981 to 1983), as well as after his studies répétiteur and conductor in Graz, Helsinki, Karlsruhe and Munich

Stages:
Wiener Staatsoper, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, Oper Zürich, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra Bastille, Salzburger Festspiele, Bayreuther Festspiele, Musikverein Wien, New York Carnegie Hall, Barbican Centre and Royal Festival Hall London, Elbphilharmonie, Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, et al.

Cooperation with orchestras:
Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Symphoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bamberger Symphoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, et al.

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Annika Schlicht

Mezzo-soprano

Birthplace:
Stuttgart, Germany

Studies:
Singing at Hochschule für Musik „Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin with Prof. Renate Faltin

Master class:
with Julia Varady, KS Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, KS Brigitte Fassbaender, KS Deborah Polaski und Patricia McCaffrey

Prizes:
3rd prize at international Wilhelm Stenhammar Competition in Sweden (2016), 2nd prize at Anneliese Rothenberger Wettbewerb (2013), Grand Prix an several special prizes at Giulio Perotti Competition (2012), 3rd Liedpreis and Förderpreis des Bronnbach e.V. at DEBUT Wettbewerb (2012), scholarship holder of Liz-Mohn Kultur Stiftung, scholarship holder of Richard-Wagner-Verband

Important parts:
Adriano (Rienzi), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Olga (Eugen Onegin), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Auntie (Peter Grimes), Försterin (Das schlaue Füchslein), 1. Magd (Elektra), Page (Salome), Flosshilde (Das Rheingold, Götterdämmerung), Siegrune (Die Walküre), Contessa di Coigny (Andrea Chenier), Mercedes (Carmen), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), 2. Dame (Die Zauberflöte), u. a.

Stages:
Deutschen Oper Berlin, Deutschen Oper am Rhein, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Bastille, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Berlin, Bergen International Festival, Salzburger Festspiele u. a.

Cooperation with directors:
Harry Kupfer, Hans Neuenfels, Luc Bondy, Claus Guth, Dmitri Tcherniakov und Johannes Erath, u. a.

Cooperation with conductors:
Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Metha, Donald Runnicles, Alondra de la Parra, Enrique Mazzola, Asher Fisch, Edward Gardner, Ingo Metzmacher, Christopher Moulds, Stefan Soltesz, Sebastian Weigle, u. a.

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Benjamin Appl

Baritone

Birthplace:
Regensburg, Germany

Studies:
Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

Prizes:
Gramophone Young Artist of the Year (2016), Echo Rising Star (2015-16), Wigmore Hall, Emerging Artist (2015-16), German Schubert Society's German Schubert Prize (2012), et al.

Important parts:
Il Conte d'Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Owen Wingrave, Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Minister (Wiener Blut), Schaunard (La Bohème), Baron Tusenbach (Tri Sestri), Leo (Das Leben am Rande der Milchstraße), et al.

Stages:
Dallas Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Liceu Barcelona, Bregenzer Festspiele, Aldeburgh Festival, Opéra de Rouen, et al.

Cooperations with directors:
Calixto Bieito, Katie Mitchell, Elijah Moshinsky, Peter Konwitschny, Rosamund Gilmore, Balázs Kovalik, Marcus Everding, Renate Ackermann, Kelly Robinson, et al.

Cooperations with conductors:
Marin Alsop, Ivor Bolton, Christian Thieleman, Karina Cannellakis, Klaus Makela, Alan Gilbert, Christian Curnyn, Thomas Dausgaard, Edward Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Bernard Labadie, Alessandro De Marchi, Andrew Manze, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Vasily Petrenko, Yutaka Sado, Jordi Savall, Paul McCreesh, and Duncan Ward, et al.

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Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Orchester

The Philharmonic State Orchestra is Hamburg’s largest and oldest orchestra, looking back on many years of musical history. When the “Philharmonic Orchestra” and the “Orchestra of the Hamburg Municipal Theatre” merged in 1934, two tradition-steeped orchestras combined. Philharmonic concerts have been performed in Hamburg since 1828, artists such as Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms being regular guests of the Philharmonic Society. The history of the opera company goes back even further: Hamburg has been home to musical theatre since 1678, even if a regular opera or theatre orchestra was only formed later. To this day, the Philharmonic State Orchestra has embodied the sound of the Hansa City, a concert and opera orchestra in one.

During its long history, the orchestra encountered great artist personalities. Apart from composers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, such as Telemann, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mahler, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, since the 20th century chief conductors such as Karl Muck, Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Aldo Ceccato, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gerd Albrecht, Ingo Metzmacher and Simone Young have shaped the orchestra’s sound. Renowned conductors of the pre-war era such as Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Karl Böhm and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt gave brilliant performances, as did outstanding conductors of our times: suffice it to mention Christian Thielemann, Semyon Bychkov, Kirill Petrenko, Adam Fischer and Sir Roger Norrington.

Starting with the 2015/2016 season, Kent Nagano has taken on the position of Hamburg’s General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra and the Hamburg State Opera and since June 2023 also its honorary conductor. In his first season Kent Nagano initiated a new project, the Philharmonic Academy, focusing on experimentation and chamber music. In 2016, Nagano and the Philharmonic toured South America, followed by concert tours to Spain and Japan in 2019, and in the spring of 2023, the Philharmonic State Orchestra made its debut at New York's Carnegie Hall under his direction, which was acclaimed by audiences and the press. Since 2017 Kent Nagano and the Philharmonic State Orchestra have continued the traditional Philharmonic Concerts at the new Elbphilharmonie, for which they commissioned Jörg Widmann to compose the oratorio ARCHE, which was given its world premiere during the hall’s opening festivities. The concert recording has been released by ECM, for which Widmann received the OPUS KLASSIK as Composer of the Year 2019, and ARCHE was performed again in 2023 to great acclaim.

The Philharmonic State Orchestra offers approximately 35 concerts per season and performs more than 240 performances per year at the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, making it Hamburg’s busiest orchestra. The stylistic bandwidth covered by the 140 musicians, ranging from historically informed performance practice to contemporary works and including concert, opera and ballet repertoire, is unique throughout Germany. Chamber Music has a long tradition at the Philharmonic State Orchestra: what began in 1929 with a concert series for chamber orchestra has been continued since 1968 by a series of chamber music only.

In 2008 Simone Young and the Philharmonic State Orchestra won the Brahms Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society. The orchestra has recorded the complete Ring by Wagner as well as the complete symphonies of Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner – the latter in the rarely-performed original versions – as well as works by Mahler, Hindemith and Berg, and has released DVDs of opera and ballet productions by Hosokawa, Offenbach, Reimann, Auerbach, J.S. Bach, Puccini, Poulenc and Weber.

The members of the Philharmonic State Orchestra feel equally beholden to Hamburg’s musical tradition and responsible for the city’s artistic future. Since 1978 the musicians have been participating in education programmes in Hamburg’s schools. Today, the orchestra maintains a broad education programme, including school and kindergarten visits, patronage for music projects, introductory events for children and family concerts. The orchestra’s own academy prepares young musicians for their professional careers. The Philharmonic’s musicians thereby make an equally enjoyable and valuable contribution to tomorrow’s music education in the music metropolis of Hamburg.

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The philharmonic concerts of the Hamburg State Orchestra become ZeitSpiele and transcend the boundaries of the ordinary: In this concert, Ella Milch-Sheriff's musical interpretation of the texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn will be heard - as some of Mahler's songs are replaced by new compositions from her hand, inspired by the original. Mahler meets us today as a mirror of the past and at the same time, through Milch-Sheriff, as part of the here and now! This musical game without fear of contact opens up new perspectives on our musical culture, our way of thinking and being, on our way of receiving music.

“On the one hand, I would never impose contemporary music on texts that have nothing to do with our time. On the other hand, it makes no sense to write music that has no connection to our time. So I have to find the right balance between my position as a composer in the 21st century and the texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, which come from a completely different time.” ELLA MILCH-SHERIFF