The Ukrainian orchestra MRIYA (The Dream) is once again performing at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, its founding venue. Since 2022, it has performed over 120 high-profile concerts in Germany and Europe, including at the Berlin Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie, Glocke Bremen, and the Musikverein Vienna. These have included performances with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Despite being founded in exile after Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the orchestra quickly established itself as an excellent ensemble specializing in contemporary and Ukrainian music, always acting as a cultural bridge between Germany and Ukraine and in the context of war and exile. This year, the young ensemble’s first album will be released. The title track is Arnold Schoenberg’s »Verklärte Nacht« (Transfigured Night) in the 1917 orchestral version (in the middle of World War I), which he revised in 1943 during World War II while in exile in the United States.
The concert opens with a musical tribute to Hamburg by Carl Philipp Emanuel. For two decades, Johann Sebastian Bach’s son shaped the cultural life of Hamburg as its music director. From his six Hamburg symphonies, we will hear the Fifth in B minor. The concert will also feature rarely heard, moving works by Ukrainian composers Valentin Silvestrov, Zoltan Almashi, and Anna Kuzina-Rozhdestvenska.
PERFORMERS
Mriya Orchestra orchestra
Kateryna Suprun viola
Artem Yasynskyy piano
Roc Fargas conductor
PROGRAM
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Sinfonie für Streicher und Basso continuo h-Moll Wq 182/5 »Hamburger Sinfonie Nr. 5«
Zoltan Almashi
Concerto grosso No.4 »Seasons«
Valentin Silvestrov
Der Bote für Klavier und Streicher
Arnold Schönberg
Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (version for string orchestra)
Anna Kuzina-Rozhdestvenska
»Atem des Lebens«
