Tagged with 'Christoph Eschenbach'

2020 is the 200th anniversary of the Berlin Konzerthaus, a concert hall that started life as a theatre. In celebration of this anniversary as part of Musikfest Berlin, Christian Tetzlaff will perform the world premiere of a new violin concerto by Christian Jost on 6 September. The concerto, entitled Concerto noir redux, will be accompanied by Konzerthausorchester Berlin and conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. 

Concerto noir redux was originally intended to bear the same title as his opera Journey of Hope - Voyage of Despair. However, after the cancellation of the original premiere in March 2020, Jost chose instead to make changes to the music in response to recent events.

Christian Jost – Concerto noir redux: music from the lockdown

The result was not only a smaller orchestra, necessitated by social distancing, but a work that expresses a darker character and soundworld. Concerto noir redux is now one of two versions of the work Concerto noir, each with the same solo part.

Usually, I compose with a clear idea of the musical structure and of the sounds, and therefore of the course of the resulting work. But this time it was different. There was an initial thought for the opening in which the solo violin gradually separates from unison with the first violins. From this starting point the work should virtually compose itself. The resulting single-movement concerto with a single tempo (quarter = 76 espressivo) is driven by rhythmic ‘cells’. I completed the composition more or less simultaneously with the end of the lockdown, and since this had given rise to a work with predominantly dark shades of colour and sound, I considered Concerto noir to be a perfect title. Christian Jost

• Christian Jost – composer profile


• Concerto noir redux – work details and online score


• Konzerthaus Berlin


• Musikfest Berlin

Photos: Adobe Stock / lakkot, Joe Quiao

2019 marks the 200^th anniversary of the great American author Walt Whitman. Paul Hindemith’s requiem, When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d, is a setting of Whitman’s poem of the same name, which will be performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg on 18 and 19 January by mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, baritone Matthias Goerne, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the NDR Choir and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.



Composed shortly after he received his American citizenship, the work pays tribute to the country that had welcomed him with open arms after his exile from Germany. It is interesting to note that Hindemith’s admiration for this particular poem stretches back much further: his 1919 song cycle for baritone and piano, 3 Hymnen von Walt Whitman, contains a setting of the ninth verse which he revisits again in 9 English Songs written in early 1940.

Hindemith sets the whole poem in his requiem, which bears the subtitle A Requiem “for those we love” and was composed in 1946 and premiered in New York the same year. The German version, which Hindemith translated himself, was first performed in Perugia in 1948.

Paul Hindemith: A Requiem “for those we love” – A commemoration to the victims of the war

The requiem was commissioned following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, drawing a historical parallel to Whitman’s poem, itself an elegy written in the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Hindemith included the inscription “for those we love” to extend its scope beyond the immediate occasion to other themes from Whitman’s text including peace and the fraternization of enemies. Hindemith also used musical language to express his profound despair concerning the fate of many Jewish people in Europe during WWII including a quotation of the Jewish melody “Gaza”.

At a young age, landscape, mood, education and personal attachment to things and events may be an important stimulus to artistic work. But I now find that the story of people, events and experiences as well as their interpretation and design by artistic means is not so much connected to these externalities. It depends on how one processes his experiences and not on collecting new ones on the spot ... - Paul Hindemith

The definitive recording of When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d features Cornelia Kallisch, Krister St. Hill, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with Lothar Zagrosek.

The new edition of the Schott Journal includes repertoire recommendations for the upcoming bicentenary of both Walt Whitman and Herman Melville in 2019. Download the magazine below to discover more from the “American Romantics”.

• Paul Hindemith - profile


• When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd - workdetails


• Schott Journal - Download

The success of his Rhapsody in Blue led the New York Symphony Society to commission a piano concerto from the young George Gershwin.

As Ferde Grofé had done the orchestration for Rhapsody, Concerto in F was Gershwin’s first attempt at orchestrating. Aware of his inexperience in this area, he hired an orchestra for the last phase of the compositional process in order to experiment with different orchestral sounds and textures.


Gershwin himself was the piano soloist at the world premiere of the concerto at Carnegie Hall New York in December 1925. The piece established Gershwin as one of the most important American composers of the 20^th century.

George Gershwin‘s Concerto in F: American Jazz cloaked in a classical garment

Originally entitled New York Concerto, Gershwin eventually changed the title to the more generic Concerto in F for piano and orchestra, reflecting his conscious desire to write absolute music, as opposed to the program music he had previously written. The piece is structured as a traditional concerto in three movements: slow – fast – slow.

Gershwin created his own American musical style with his Concerto, mixing jazz, Broadway songs, dance rhythms and late romantic harmonies. The syncopated Charleston rhythm is present in the first movement (Allegro alla breve), from which the solo piano emerges with the first theme. These two ideas are connected in the second movement (Adagio – Andante con moto) in the piano solo-cadenza. This movement is often described as a “Blues-Nocturne” because of its stylistic features. The third movement is heavily influenced by jazz, with Gershwin describing it as an “orgy of rhythms, starting violently and keeping to the same pace throughout.”

Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody was only a happy accident... I went out to show them that there was plenty more where that came from. I made up my mind to compose a piece of “absolute” music. The Rhapsody, as its title implied, was a blues impression. The Concerto would be unrelated to any program. – George Gershwin

A performance of Gershwin’s Concerto in F by the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and soloist Tzimon Barto at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg will be given on 14 August.  Though this concert is now sold out, a public rehearsal of the program which includes Ravel’s La valse and Daphnis et Chloé, can be heard  in the ACO Thormannhalle Rendsburg on 13 August.

• George Gershwin - Profile


• Concerto in F - workdetails and score


• Concert in the Elbphilharmonie


• Public rehearsal