From the 2026/27 season, Kazuki Yamada will be Principal Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. They will be performing at the Elbphilharmonie alongside the Canadian cello star Jean-Guihen Queyras, presenting a programme of thrilling contrasts: as delicately as Henri Dutilleux’s Cello Concerto unfolds, so wild and unrestrained is the music in Hector Berlioz’s famous »Symphonie fantastique«.
In keeping with the Musikfest motto »Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll«, Berlioz’s music takes a young artist in love on a journey from his first blissful infatuation, through a wild ball, into an opium-induced frenzy and a hellish ride to the Last Judgement. The composer drew inspiration from his infatuation with the actress Harriet Smithson – who was so impressed by the music that she wanted to meet Berlioz, and the two actually married.
Dutilleux, too, found poetic inspiration for his Cello Concerto. »Tout un monde lointain…« refers to five poems from the cycle »Fleurs du mal« (»Flowers of Evil«) by Charles Baudelaire. With their themes revolving around the dark, melancholic and at times erotic sides of humanity, the poems caused a scandal upon their publication around 1860, but very quickly became an integral part of world literature.
PERFORMERS
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin orchestra
Jean-Guihen Queyras violoncello
Kazuki Yamada conductor
PROGRAM
Unsuk Chin
subito con forza
Henri Dutilleux
Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra »Tout un monde lointain...«
- Interval -
Hector Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique
