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NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
Date details
- Date Monday, 07/September/2026 20:00
- Venue Philharmonie Berlin
- Address Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten
Public transportation
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Train (S-Bahn)
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S+U Potsdamer Platz Bhf
- S1
- S2
- S25
- S26
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S+U Potsdamer Platz Bhf
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Underground
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Bus
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Philharmonie
- 200
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Philharmonie Süd
- M41
- 300
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Ben-Gurion-Str.
- RB10
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Kulturforum
- M48
- M85
- N2
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Varian-Fry-Str./Potsdamer Platz
- 200
- M41
- M48
- M85
- N2
- 300
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Tiergartenstr.
- 200
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Potsdamer Brücke
- M29
- M48
- M85
- N1
- N2
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S Potsdamer Platz Bhf/Voßstr.
- M41
- M48
- M85
- S1A
- S7B
-
S+U Potsdamer Platz Bhf
- M41
- 200
- M48
- M85
- N2
- 300
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Gedenkstätte Dt. Widerstand
- M29
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Lützowstr./Potsdamer Str.
- M48
- M85
- N1
- N2
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Philharmonie
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Train
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S+U Potsdamer Platz Bhf
- RE3
- RE5
- RE4
- RE85
- FEX
- RB10
- RE8
- RE20
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S+U Potsdamer Platz Bhf
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
Alan Gilbert, conductor; Henze / Brahms
Musikfest Berlin – Wortmarke Musikfest Berlin
© Berliner Festspiele
Hans Werner Henze had already become a legend during his lifetime: a “person resembling an overlong music encyclopaedia entry in Grove or the MGG” as commented by his librettist Hans-Ulrich Treichel. To mark the centenary of the birth of Hans Werner Henze, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester under the direction of Alan Gilbert and the pianist Tamara Stefanovich will present Henze’s Preludes for piano, tapes and orchestra with the enigmatic title Tristan. This is poignant funeral music containing quotations from works such as Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 which also features in this concert.
Hans Werner Henze made it clear that he desired his Tristan Preludes for piano, tapes and orchestra composed in 1973 to be understood as “audio-visual”: as a tonal drama on the concert stage. Right from the first bar, the highly emotional music reflects pain, yearning, love, grief and parting – Henze described his composition as a “scream of death” from the orchestra. Alongside references to Wagner (Tristan und Isolde and the Wesendonck-Lieder), the six-section work with its “coup de théâtre” additionally contains quotations from Brahms and distorted taped sounds of Frédéric Chopin’s funeral march from his Piano Sonata in B minor, “glistening like the sea on an autumn evening” (Henze). The concluding epilogue features a taped child’s voice reciting verses narrating Isolde’s tragic “love-death” by the 12th-century Anglo-Norman poet Thomas d’Angleterre in an English translation. After Henze’s funeral music with prominent piano part which mourns for all the dead “whose loss has now impoverished humanity”, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester dedicate their attention to Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 which adheres on a dramatic level to Beethoven’s epigram “per aspera ad astra” [through darkness to light]. The bleak struggle in the C minor opening movement with its forceful timpani beats and sudden dramatic swings stands in contrast to the finale which ultimately finds its conclusion in a supremely radiant C major.
In honor of Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1926–2012)
Tristan
Préludes for piano, tapes and orchestra (1973, rev. 1991)
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Symphony No. 1 C minor op. 68 (1862–77)
Hans Werner Henze made it clear that he desired his Tristan Preludes for piano, tapes and orchestra composed in 1973 to be understood as “audio-visual”: as a tonal drama on the concert stage. Right from the first bar, the highly emotional music reflects pain, yearning, love, grief and parting – Henze described his composition as a “scream of death” from the orchestra. Alongside references to Wagner (Tristan und Isolde and the Wesendonck-Lieder), the six-section work with its “coup de théâtre” additionally contains quotations from Brahms and distorted taped sounds of Frédéric Chopin’s funeral march from his Piano Sonata in B minor, “glistening like the sea on an autumn evening” (Henze). The concluding epilogue features a taped child’s voice reciting verses narrating Isolde’s tragic “love-death” by the 12th-century Anglo-Norman poet Thomas d’Angleterre in an English translation. After Henze’s funeral music with prominent piano part which mourns for all the dead “whose loss has now impoverished humanity”, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester dedicate their attention to Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 which adheres on a dramatic level to Beethoven’s epigram “per aspera ad astra” [through darkness to light]. The bleak struggle in the C minor opening movement with its forceful timpani beats and sudden dramatic swings stands in contrast to the finale which ultimately finds its conclusion in a supremely radiant C major.
In honor of Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1926–2012)
Tristan
Préludes for piano, tapes and orchestra (1973, rev. 1991)
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Symphony No. 1 C minor op. 68 (1862–77)
Artists/Collaborators: Tamara Stefanovich, Alan Gilbert, Holger Busse
A Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin event
Work introduction
19:10, South Foyer
Work introduction
19:10, South Foyer
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