Staatsoper Hamburg - Stück-Besetzung: Unsuk Chin

Komposition

Unsuk Chin

Composer

Unsuk Chin

Unsuk Chin was born in 1961 in Seoul, South Korea. She studied with Sukhi Kang and György Ligeti and has lived in Berlin since 1988. Her music has attracted the attention of international conductors including Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, Peter Eötvös, Myung-Whun Chung, George Benjamin, Susanna Mälkki, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, François-Xavier Roth, Leif Segerstam, Hannu Lintu, Jakub Hrusa, Kazushi Ono and Ilan Volkov, among others. It is modern in language, but lyrical and non-doctrinaire in communicative power. Chin has received many honours, including the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for her Violin Concerto No.1, the 2005 Arnold Schoenberg Prize, the 2010 Prince Pierre Foundation Music Award, the 2012 Ho-Am Prize, the 2017 Wihuri Sibelius Prize, the 2019 Hamburg Bach Prize, the 2020 Kravis Prize as well as the 2021 Leonie Sonning Music Prize. In 2024, she was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

She has been commissioned by leading performing organisations and her music has been performed in major festivals and concert series in Europe, the Far East, and North America by orchestras and ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gothenburg Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Kronos Quartet and Arditti Quartet. In addition, Unsuk Chin has been active in writing electronic music, receiving commissions from IRCAM and other electronic music studios.

In 2007, Chin’s first opera Alice in Wonderland was given its world première at the Bavarian State Opera as the opening of the Munich Opera Festival and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Unitel Classica. She has been Composer-in-Residence of the Lucerne Festival, the Festival d‘Automne, Stockholm International Composer Festival, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Cologne Philharmonic’s Eight Bridges festival, the São Paulo Symphony, Casa da Música, BBC Symphony's Total Immersion Festival, Melbourne Symphony, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, and many more. Between 2006 and 2017 Chin was Composer-in-Residence with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, overseeing its contemporary music series which she founded. She served as Artistic Director of the ‘Music of Today’ series of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London for nine seasons between 2011 and 2020. In 2022 she started a five year tenure as Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Festival in South Korea and her Artistic Directorship of the Weiwuying International Music Festival in Taiwan. Portrait CDs of her music have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, Kairos and Analekta as well as a special edition of Berlin Philharmonic.

Unsuk Chin’s works are published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

Performances

Die dunkle Seite des Mondes

photo: Bonsook Koo

Mitarbeit Libretto

Kerstin Schüssler-Bach

Inszenierung

Dead Centre

Musikalische Leitung

Kent Nagano

General Music Director of Hamburg

Kent Nagano

Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. Since September 2015, he has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg. In addition, he is committed as Artistic Director of the Ring project “The Wagner Cycles” of Dresdner Musikfestspiele with Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln, and as patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival. He has been Honorary Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin since 2006, Concerto Köln since 2019, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2021 and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester since 2023.

The 2024/25 season is Kent Nagano's last season as General Music Director in Hamburg and brings four new productions to the Staatsoper under Nagano's musical direction: Carl Orff's Trionfi, Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Unsuk Chin's The Dark Side of the Moon, and Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier's The Illusions of William Mallory. Furthermore, he conducts symphony concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester in the Elbphilharmonie as he does every season, including the New Year's performance and the world premiere of Alex Nante's symphony Anahata, a work commissioned by the Philharmonic State Orchestra.
Highlights of recent seasons in Hamburg have included opera productions such as Boris Godunov, Salome, performances of Sciarrino's Venere e Adone and Britten's Peter Grimes, Les Troyens, Lulu, Lessons in Love and Violence and the world premiere of Stilles Meer as well as Les Contes d'Hoffmann in the new production by Daniele Finzi Pasca (released on DVD by EuroArts, February 2022), the “Philharmonic Academy” in St. Michaelis, open-air concerts at the Rathausmarkt and the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin's work Waves for organ and orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie. Orchestral tours with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg have taken Kent Nagano to Japan, Spain and South America.

In the 2024/25 season, Kent Nagano conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Passau, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in Montréal and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, among others. He also conducts Dusapin's Il Vaggio, Dante in a production by Claus Guth at the Paris Opera and the revival of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre in a production by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

As a much sought-after guest conductor, Kent Nagano regularly works with leading international orchestras worldwide, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de l'Opéra national in Paris, the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and the Wiener Symphoniker. A special project was the Bernstein opera A quiet place at the Paris Opera. Other opera productions include the world premiere of Dusapin's Il viaggio, dante at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Hindemith's Cardillac, Henze's Die Bassariden and the world premiere of Saariaho's L'amour de loin at the Salzburg Festival. Other world premieres conducted by Nagano include Bernstein's A White House Cantata and the operas Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin, Three Sisters by Peter Eötvös and The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño by John Adams.

Under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano and the Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler, Wagner's Ring Tetralogy will be performed in the artistic context of the period in which it was composed, based on the latest findings of research into Wagner and performance practice, and integrated into an extensive supporting program as part of the multi-year project The Wagner Cycles of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele from 2023 to 2026. The first performance in 2023 was Das Rheingold at the Dresden Music Festival and the tour to Cologne, Ravello and Lucerne under the musical direction of Kent Nagano. Die Walküre followed in 2024 as the second work in the epochal narrative in Prague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and Lucerne. In 2025, the project devotes itself to Richard Wagner's Siegfried and gives historically informed concert performances in international concert halls and opera houses.

Highlights of Kent Nagano's collaboration with the OSM as Music Director from 2006 to 2020 included the inauguration of the orchestra’s new concert hall La Maison Symphonique in September 2011, performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, concert versions of Wagner's Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and Das Rheingold, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au Bücher, and Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. Tours have taken Nagano and the orchestra to Canada including the Northern Territories, Japan, South Korea, Europe (latest 2019), Latin America and the USA. In July 2018, Kent Nagano conducted Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion with the OSM at the Salzburg Festival opening concert.
His recordings with the OSM on Sony Classical/Analekta include Mahler’s Orchestral Songs with Christian Gerhaher in 2013 and a complete recording of all of Beethoven’s symphonies in 2015. Decca released a recording of the North American premiere of L'Aiglon, a rarely performed opera by Honegger and Ibert in 2016, conducted by Nagano in 2015. Further releases by Decca are Danse Macabre with works by Dukas, Saint-Saens, Ives and others in 2016 as well as a recording of Bernstein's A quiet place in 2018 on the occasion of the composer's 100th birthday. John Adams' Common tones in simple time & harmony (Decca) was released in 2019, the Lukas Passion by Penderecki (BIS) and works by Ginastera, Bernstein and Moussa (Analekta) in 2020.

At the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he was General Music Director from 2006 to 2013, Kent Nagano commissioned new operas such as Babylon by Jörg Widmann, Das Gehege by Wolfgang Rihm and Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin. New productions included Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites, Messiaen’s Saint François d'Assise, Berg’s Wozzeck, George Benjamin's Written on skin and Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Tours took Nagano and the Bavarian State Orchestra through Europe and Japan. In addition to Bruckner's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7 (Sony), Kent Nagano has released several opera performances with the Bavarian State Orchestra on DVD: Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland (2008) and Mussorgsky's Chowanschtschina (2009) with unitel classica/medici arts, Dialogue des Carmélites with Bel Air Classiques (2011) and Lohengrin (2010) with Decca.

Another very important period in Nagano’s career was his time as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000-2006. He performed Schönberg’s Moses und Aron with the orchestra (in collaboration with Los Angeles Opera) and took them to the Salzburg Festival to perform both Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules and Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, as well as to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Parsifal and Lohengrin in productions by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Recordings with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Harmonia Mundi include repertoire as diverse as Bernstein’s Mass, Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6, Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Schönberg’s Die Jakobsleiter and Friede auf Erden, as well as Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 and Schönberg’s Variationen für Orchester Op. 31. In June 2006, at the end of his tenure with the orchestra, Kent Nagano was given the title Honorary Conductor by members of the orchestra – only the second recipient of this honour in their 60-year history. To this day he maintains a close friendship with the orchestra.

In October 2019, Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama expanded their joint recordings of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 0 E-flat Major WoO 4, a nearly unknown work from the composer’s youth, and his Rondo for Piano and Orchestra WoO 6 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The complete edition of Beethoven’s piano concerti was released on the Berlin Classics label.

Nagano was awarded Grammys for his recordings of Busoni’s Doktor Faust with Opéra National de Lyon, Prokofjew’s Peter and the Wolf with the Russian National Orchestra and Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin. He has worked with labels such as BIS, Decca, Sony Classical, FARAO Classics and Analekta for many years, and has also recorded CDs with Berlin Classics, Erato, Teldec, Pentatone, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi.

To celebrate Kent Nagano's 70th birthday in 2021, a 3-CD box set of works by Olivier Messiaen was released in October on the BR Klassik label. The release includes live recordings of the works Poèmes pour Mi, Chronochromie and La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ from his concerts with the Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, demonstrating Nagano's close familiarity with Messiaen's musical language in a special way.

In September 2021, Kent Nagano published his second book with Berlin Verlag. In "10 Lessons of my Life", he recalls ten deeply personal encounters from which he learned important lessons, not only for his career but for his life more broadly. Among those experiences are encounters with the Icelandic pop artist Björk, Frank Zappa, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez and the Nobel Prize winner in physics Donald Glaser.
In 2015 Kent Nagano published "Erwarten Sie Wunder!" also in Berlin Verlag, a passionate appeal for the relevance of classical music in today's world. In 2019 the book was released in English by the Canadian McGill-Queen's University Press under the title ″Classical Music - Expect the Unexpected" and in 2015 under "Sonnez, merveilles!" in French by Éditions du Boréal.

Born in California, Nagano maintains close connections with his home state and was Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra from 1978-2009. His first major successes came with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1984, when Messiaen appointed him assistant to conductor Seiji Ozawa for the premiere of his opera Saint François d'Assise. Nagano’s success in America led to European appointments: Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1988-1998) and Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991-2000). Kent Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in 2003 having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years.

Kent Nagano was awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill University in Montréal in 2005, an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal in 2006, and an honorary doctorate from San Francisco State University in 2018. Since 2017, Kent Nagano has been a "Compagnon" of the "Ordre des arts et des lettres" of Québec and in the fall of 2023, Kent Nagano was also awarded the title of "Chevalier" in the "Ordre des art et des lettres" of France. In February 2024, Kent Nagano was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal President and in June 2024 he was awarded the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor. Kent Nagano is the recipient of the 2024 Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein.

Find further information about Kent Nagano here.

Performances

photo: Dominik Odenkirchen

Bühne

Jeremy Herbert

Jeremy Herbert ist als Bühnenbildner und Multimedia-Künstler tätig. Er entwarf zahlreiche Bühnenbilder für das Royal Court Theatre, unter anderem für Sarah Kanes »Cleansed«, Tom Murphys »Alice Trilogy«, Marius von Mayenburgs »The Ugly One« und Olivier Choinières »Bliss«. Für sein Bühnenbild zur Uraufführung von »4.48 Psychosis« wurde er mit dem Barclay Award ausgezeichnet. Jeremy Herbert war außerdem für Michael Nymans Oper »Man and Boy DADA« als Bühnenbildner und Videoregisseur am Almeida Theater London engagiert und entwarf das Bühnenbild für die Premiere von John Taverners Oper »Mary of Egypt« beim Aldeburgh Festival. Außerdem arbeitete er für die Royal Shakespeare Company (»The Tempest«, »Roberto Zucco«, »Beauty and the Beast«), das Piccolo Teatro in Mailand (»Attempts on her Life«) und das Almeida Theatre in London (»The Triumph of Love«, »Parlour Song«). Auch im Londoner Theaterviertel West End war er tätig und zeichnete unter anderem als Bühnenbildner für »This is our Youth« und »Treats« am Garrick Theatre, »Sexual Perversity in Chicago« am Royal Haymarket Theatre und »Up for Grabs« am Wyndham‘s Theatre verantwortlich. Zu seinen jüngsten Projekten zählen »Rodelinda« an der English National Opera, »La Traviata« bei den Wiener Festwochen sowie »Hamlet«, »The Glass Menagerie« und »Blackta« am Young Vic Theatre.
In der Saison 2008/09 arbeitete er erstmals mit dem Regisseur Ramin Gray zusammen und schuf das Bühnenbild für dessen Inszenierung von Simon Stephens »Harper Regan« am Deutschen Schauspielhaus in Hamburg und bei den Salzburger Festspielen. Es folgte eine weitere gemeinsame Arbeit im Rahmen der Neuproduktion von Benjamin Brittens »Death in Venice« an der Staatsoper Hamburg. In der Spielzeit 2014/15 verantwortet Jeremy Herbert das Bühnenbild für die Uraufführung von Beat Furrers »la bianca notte / die helle nacht«.

Performances

Die dunkle Seite des Mondes

Kostüme

Janina Brinkmann

Licht

James Farncombe

Lighting Designer

James Farncombe

Birthplace:
Shropshire, United Kingdom

Studies:
Contemporary Art, Nottingham Trent University

Prizes:
WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design (2011), Obie Award/Special Mentions (2018)

Nominations: Laurence Olivier Award – Best Lighting Design (2016), Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play (2017), Golden Mask Award for Musical Theatre/Best Light Designer (2019)

Important productions:
Opera: Jenůfa, Lessons in Love and Violence (also Gran Teatre del Liceu, Dutch National Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Hamburg State Opera), Theodora (Royal Opera House); Lucia di Lammermoor (Metropolitan Opera, New York, Los Angeles Opera); Le Vin Herbé (Berliner Staatsoper); Innocence (also Helsinki and Royal Opera House), Pelléas et Mélisande, Alcina (also Bolshoi Theatre of Russia); Tristan und Isolde, Ariadne auf Naxos, Trauernacht (Aix-en-Provence); La Traviata (Opéra de Paris, Palais de Garnier, Wiener Staatsoper); Streetscene (Teatro Real, Madrid); Jenůfa (also Palau de les Arts, Valencia), Der Zwerg, (Dutch National Opera); Francesca Da Rimini (Opéra National du Rhin); Miranda (Opéra Comique); The Barber of Seville (Glyndebourne); Marriage of Figaro (Opera North); Pelléas et Mélisande (Den Norske Opera); Der fliegende Holländer, Ariodante (Scottish Opera); Benjamin, dernière nuit (Opéra de Lyon)

Ballet: Der Nussknacker, Carmen, L’Oiseau de feu (Norwegian National Ballet)

Theatre: Yerma (& Armory, NY), Measure for Measure (Young Vic); When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, Macbeth, People, Places & Things (also West End, UK Tour and St Ann’s Warehouse, NY; Olivier nomination for Best Lighting Design), Twelfth Night, Three Winters, The Plough and the Stars, Man and Superman (National); The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (Almeida); Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith, West End & Tour); White Devil, As You Like It, A Mad World My Masters (RSC); The Tempest, Henry IV (St Ann’s NYC); Julius Caesar (Donmar at King’s Cross); Anatomy of Suicide (Royal Court & Hamburg Schauspielhaus); The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); The Dresser (Duke of York’s); The Ladykillers (also Gielgud), Swallows and Amazons (Vaudeville); Ibsen Huis, De Meiden (Toneelgroep, Amsterdam)

Find further information about James Farncombe here.

Performances

Die dunkle Seite des Mondes

Video

Sophie Lux

Dramaturgie

Dr. Angela Beuerle

Dramaturgie

Michael Sangkuhl

Chorleitung

Christian Günther

Dr. Kieron

Thomas Lehman

Meister Astaroth

Bo Skovhus

Baritone

Bo Skovhus

Birthplace:
Ikast, Denmark

Studium:
Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Royal Academy for Opera of Copenhagen

Prizes:
Österreichischer Kammersänger, order of knights of Denmark, honorary member of Freunde der Wiener Staatsoper

Important parts:
König Lear (Lear), Cortez (Die Eroberung von Mexiko), Beckmesser (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper (Lulu), Mandryka (Arabella), Conte Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Hamlet (Hamlet v. Ambroise Thomas), Claudius (Hamlet v. Arno Schreier), Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt), Bariton (Jedermann-Monologe), René (Der Graf von Luxemburg), Danilo (Die lustige Witwe), Tamare (Die Gezeichneten), Jean-Charles (Das Floß der Medusa), Eugen Onegin (Eugen Onegin), Schischkow (Aus einem Totenhaus), Bariton (Lyrische Sinfonie), Bariton (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), Titus (Berenice), Karl V (Karl V), Kowaljow (Die Nase), Amfortas (Parsifal), Peter (Hänsel und Gretel), Gefangener (Il Prigioniero), Agamemnon (Iphigénie en Aulide), Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride), Frank & Fritz (Die tote Stadt), Jonny (Jonny spielt auf), Ulisse (Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Andrej Bokonski (Krieg und Frieden), Ramiro (L’Heure espagnol), Graf (Capriccio), Barbier (Die schweigsame Frau), Storch (Intermezzo), Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Jelezki (Pique Dame), Wolfram von Eschenbach (Tannhäuser), Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Grigori Stepanowitsch (The bear), Oberst Chabert (Oberst Chabert), Melisso (Alcina), et al.

Stages:
Hamburgische Staatsoper, Opéra Bastille, Opéra Garnier, Salzburger Festspiele, Wagner Festspiele Budapest, Bayerische Staatsoper, Volksoper Wien, Wiener Staatsoper, Konzerthaus Wien, Musikverein Wien, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Staatsoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Theater an der Wien, Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, Oper Köln, Niederländische Oper Amsterdam, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real Madrid, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Philharmonie Berlin, Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence, Teatro Regio di Torino, Königliche Oper Kopenhagen, Glyndebourne Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Staatsoper Budapest, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Willy Decker, Romeo Castellucci, Stefan Herheim, Claus Guth, Christoph Loy, Karoline Gruber, Calixto Bieito, John Cox, Roberto de Simone, Marco Arturo Marelli, Jonathan Miller, Jürgen Flimm, Peter Konwitschny, Jens-Daniel Herzog, Robert Carsen, Sabine Hartmannshen, Frank Castorf, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Jerome Savar, Dimitri Tcherniakov, Franceska Zambello, David McVicar, Martin Kusej, Markus Bothe, Emmanuelle Bastet, Torsten Fischer, Günter Krämer, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Kirill Petrenko, Christoph Eschenbach, Armin Jordan, Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Franz Welser-Möst, Simone Young, Michael Boder, Ingo Metzmacher, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davis, Bertrand de Billy, Charles Dutoit, Claus Peter Flor, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marek Janowski, Mariss Jansons, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Georges Prètre, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Ulf Schirmer, Horst Stein, Sir Jeffrey Tate, Christian Thielemann, Edo de Waart, Dietfried Bernet, Rudolf Bibl, Alfred Eschwe, Peter Schneider, François-Xavier Roth, Gabriel Feltz, Fabio Luisi, Allan Gilbert, Manfred Honeck, et al.

Performances

Die dunkle Seite des Mondes

Miriel

Siobhan Stagg

Chor

Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper

Orchester

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Orchestra

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

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.

Performances

photo: Foto: Felix Broede