The Hamburg State Youth Orchestra has been an integral part of the young music scene for over 55 years as the select orchestra of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. With verve and enthusiasm, around 70 young musicians will perform works by Wagner, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff in the winter concert under the baton of Volker Krafft. The overture to Richard Wagner’s opera »The Flying Dutchman« from 1843 is an impressive musical prelude that takes up central themes and motifs from the opera. In gripping drama, it depicts the stormy sea, the fate of the cursed sailor and redemption through love.
Sergej Rachmaninow’s Second Piano Concerto is one of the best-known and most popular works of Romantic piano literature. The second movement in particular is famous for its lyrical beauty, while the dramatic first and passionate third movements showcase the soloist’s pianistic skills. The LJO Hamburg is collaborating for the first time with the internationally acclaimed pianist Kiveli Dörken, who has performed at numerous festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and given concerts for the Dalai Lama and Angela Merkel.
Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, also known as the »Pastoral«, stands out from his other symphonies with its nature-inspired theme, conveying less dramatic development and more tranquil contemplation and joy in nature. The symphony consists of five movements instead of the usual four, each depicting atmospheric scenes – such as a babbling brook, a cheerful village festival and a violent thunderstorm. With this symphony, Beethoven did not want to tell a specific story, but rather to musically represent feelings and impressions in nature – »more an expression of feeling than painting«, as he himself said.
The patron of the LJO Hamburg is the First Mayor, Dr Peter Tschentscher. The ensemble is sponsored by the Landesmusikrat in der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg e. V. (State Music Council of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg) and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media.
PERFORMERS
Landesjugendorchester Hamburg orchestra
Kiveli Dörken piano
Volker Krafft conductor
PROGRAM
Richard Wagner
Ouvertüre zu »Der fliegende Holländer« WWV 63
Sergej Rachmaninow
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
- Interval -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 »Pastoral Symphony«
