Concerto 27th august 2023 – Festival de Pollença

DIE DEUTSCHE KAMMERPHILHARMONIE BREMEN

Hilary HAHN, violí

Omer Meir WELLBER, director

Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Hilary Hahn announce the change of a work from the second part of the programme:

«Hilary Hahn will perform W. A. Mozart Concerto No. 5, «Turkish», as scheduled; however, after overcoming the conditions caused by the coronavirus and being in the process of a full recovery, she is very sorry to have to postpone the premiere of the new concert «Labyrinthe du temps» by Aziza Sadikova for a later date. Instead, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and conductor Omer Meir Wellber will perform W. A. Mozart Symphony No. 1 in E flat major K.16 as the first work after the break».

We apologise for the inconvenience. Thank you.

Obertura Don Giovanni, K 527

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Concert per a violí núm. 5 en la major, K 219, «El concert turc»

W. A. Mozart

I. Allegro Aperto – Adagio – Allegro Aperto

II. Adagio

III. Rondo – Tempo di Minuetto

(Pausa)

Simfonia nº 1 en mi bemoll major, K 16

W. A. Mozart

I. Allegro molto

II. Andante

III. Presto

Simfonia núm. 2 en si bemoll major, D 125

F. Schubert (1797 – 1828)

I. Largo – Allegro vivace

II. Andante

III. Menuetto: allegro vivace – Trio

IV. Presto

PROGRAM NOTES

CROSSING SPACE AND TIME

Bàrbara Duran Bordoy, Musicologist and writer

Composition is the tool that reflects Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) special way of doing and being. Much can be written about him, but there is no doubt he had his music installed in his head, incorporated into his very existence. His wife, Constanze Weber, said that Don Giovanni K 527 Overture was written hours before the opera’s première and mysteriously sprouted from Mozart’s mind in the last moments. As is customary, this opening takes the opera’s main topics. Still, it exudes a unique flair—obscure chords, hidden sighs in the strings and melodic lines going up and down approach Don Giovanni’s description of a descent into hell. The same melodic lines will join his soul’s condemnation at the end of the work.

Other sources point out that his father, Leopold Mozart, prioritized the study of the keyboard and preferred to delay the learning of the violin in his son’s education until he showed him he naturally learned to play it. And it is this instrument presiding over much of today’s program. Concerto no. 5 is undeniably classic but so dynamic and energetic that it needs a performer with impeccable technique, capable of generating a radiant and agile sound that must be displayed from the first theme to the cadence, which the soloist usually improvises at the end of the first half. A unique feature in Mozartian literature is that this first movement sustains an adagio section that prepares the second movement with a subtle and delicate air. The third movement is a small masterpiece that unfolds a gallant-cut theme (Rondo/Tempo di Minuetto). It moves to a brilliant, energetic melody inspired by the exotic orientalist music trending during the late 18th century. Listeners can easily discover links with the well-known «Alla Turca» from Sonata K 331 or delightful moments from the Die Entführung aus dem Serail opera; hence this Concert no. 5 is known as «Turkish Concert. »

Eleven years earlier, when Wolfgang A. Mozart was just eight, he travelled to London on one of his tours as a child prodigy, and there he composed Symphony No. 1 in E flat major. The purpose of these trips was not only the concerts but also a family strategy of building complicity and contacts with the most prominent musical world. Thus, they met with Johann Christian Bach – J. S. Bach’s son known as “the London Bach,” during this London stay. J. C. Bach was one of the greatest exponents of the new Viennese classical style and a very famous composer at the time. To what extent this trip influenced this first Mozartian symphony, we cannot know, but we do know that Mozart nails the gallant style’s language, bringing sophistication, elegance, and not-too-much drama depth. A masterful display of sound or fireworks is not expected from an eight-year-old, but the truth is this full-grown orchestral competence is not either. The manuscript contains some edits by his father because the novice composer still had to be overseen. But he showed he already reliably handled symphonic structures and orchestration: the first movement is a Molto Allegro; Andante the second, which modulates in the minor key, and Presto is the third.

Schubert (1797 – 1828) completes today’s concert circle like the mythical ouroboros – the snake swallowing its tail – because, although he is considered one of the authors displaying the language of Romanticism, his compositions’ exquisite balance is a classical compositional thought follow-up. In this Symphony No. 2, Schubert drinks from Don Giovanni Overture’s outlines—from Mozart’s Concerto No. 5, nonetheless adding the unique point of clearly transferring his intimate and personal expression, the feelings and experience of his intense and passionate self. It is not at all a musicology theoretical cliché: the listener can recognize a suggestive voice running through the work while everything unfolds, radiant and splendid, in this Symphony No. 2.

And that is how the pieces performed today interbreed space and time: from London’s gallant style to the purest classicism and the first expressive Romanticism displayed in Vienna.

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is one of the world’s leading orchestras, captivating audiences everywhere with its unique style of music-making. The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been the orchestra’s Artistic Director since 2004.

One of the many highlights of the collaboration with Paavo Järvi has been their Beethoven Project, on which conductor and orchestra concentrated for ten years. Their Beethoven interpretations have been acclaimed worldwide by audiences and critics alike as benchmark performances. Following the Beethoven Project, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi focused on Robert Schumann’s symphonic works with equal success.

The latest project of the orchestra and its conductor is the German composer Johannes Brahms. With Symphonies No. 3 and No. 4 released in March 2019, the symphony cycle came to completion. The project’s highlight was the internationally acclaimed performance of A German Requiem on April 10, 2018, at Bremen Cathedral – 150 years after the first performance. The recording has been released on DVD and Blu-ray by C-Major.

In October 2019, The Brahms Code, an exciting TV/DVD documentary about the Brahms Project produced by Deutsche Welle/Unitel, was released and was the German Record Critics’ Award winner in the music film category (1/2020). Although the Brahms cycle and the associated intensive examination of Brahms’ works are not yet finished, the orchestra has turned to another composer, Joseph Haydn. At the special request of Paavo Järvi, the musicians deal with Haydn’s twelve London Symphonies. The first concerts were held in Vienna in the autumn of 2021, and according to the Wiener Zeitung, the Viennese audience appreciated them with bravos and prolonged applause. Winter of 2022, The Kammerphilharmonie and Järvi went on a tour in Asia with London Symphonies, starting in Hamburg and then Vienna to Japan and South Korea. The first CD with two of Haydn’s twelve London Symphonies is released in 2023.

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has been honored with numerous prizes, such as Echo, Opus and Diapason d’Or, for its recordings and unique Future Lab—a driving force for social development and now also a global movement. For years, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has cultivated close musical friendships with international soloists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Maria Joao Pires, Janine Jansen, Igor Levit, Hilary Hahn, and Martin Grubinger. In addition to the long-time artistic director Paavo Järvi, the young Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski has been the first Principal Guest Conductor since February 2022.

Since opening in 2017, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has been one of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg’s resident orchestras and a long-standing Kolner Philharmonie’s resident orchestra. In 2019, the orchestra was the first in residence at the Rheingau Musik Festival and was awarded the Rheingau Musik Preis for its pioneering projects and the associated writing of interpretation history.

Hilary HAHN, violin

Three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn melds expressive musicality and technical expertise with a diverse repertoire guided by artistic curiosity. Her barrier-breaking attitude towards classical music and her commitment to sharing her experiences with a global community have made her a fan favorite. Hahn is a prolific recording artist and commissioner of new works, and her 22 feature recordings have received every critical prize in the international press. Her Instagram-based practice initiative, #100daysofpractice, has helped to transform practicing into a community-oriented celebration of artistic development. Since creating the hashtag in 2017, Hahn has completed the project four times under her handle, @violincase; fellow performers and students have contributed nearly 800,000 posts under the hashtag. She is currently Artist-in-Residence at both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and London’s Wigmore Hall, and is Co-Founder and VP of Artistic Partnerships of the AI-music initiative Deepmusic.AI.

This season, Hahn appears as soloist on concertos by Brahms, Sibelius, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev, as well as Pablo de Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Deux Sérénades, which appears in its US premiere. Hahn also performs several solo recitals this season. In addition to recitals of works by Lera Auerbach and Sergei Prokofiev in London and Berlin, she performs the Bach repertoire that made her a household name in solo recitals in London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

A strong advocate for new music, Hahn has championed and commissioned works by a diverse array of contemporary composers. Her 2021 recording Paris features the world premiere recording of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Deux Sérénades, a piece written for Hahn and completed posthumously by Kalevi Aho, which Hahn premiered in 2019. Other recent commissions include Michael Abels’s Isolation Variation—Hahn’s recording of which has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category—Barbara Assiginaak’s Sphinx Moth, Lera Auerbach’s Sonata No. 4: Fractured Dreams, and 6 Partitas by Antón García Abril, a recording of which was released in 2019. García Abril, Auerbach, and Rautavaara were contributing composers for In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores, Hahn’s Grammy Award-winning multi-year commissioning project to revitalize the duo encore genre.

Hahn is a prolific and celebrated recording artist whose 22 feature albums on Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and Sony have all opened in the top ten of the Billboard charts. Her most recent recording, 2022’s Eclipse, celebrates Hahn’s return to the stage and studio after two seasons away with three pieces by Dvořák, Ginastera, and Sarasate. Three of Hahn’s albums—her 2003 Brahms and Stravinsky concerto disc, a 2008 pairing of the Schoenberg and Sibelius concerti, and her 2013 recording of In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores—have been awarded Grammys.

Hahn has related to her fans naturally from the very beginning of her career. She has held signings after nearly every concert and maintains and shares a collection of the fan art she has received over the course of 20 years. Her “Bring Your Own Baby” concerts create opportunities for parents of infants to share their enjoyment of live classical music with their children in a nurturing, welcoming environment. Hahn’s commitment to her fans extends to a long history of educational initiatives. A former Suzuki student, she released new recordings of the first three books of the Suzuki Violin School in 2020, in partnership with the International Suzuki Association and Alfred Music

Hahn is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. She was awarded the eleventh Annual Glasshütte Original Music Festival Award, which she donated to the Philadelphia-based music education nonprofit Project 440. She received the Herbert von Karajan award in 2021, and delivered the keynote speech of the Second Annual Women in Classical Music Symposium in the same year. In 2023, she was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year. Hahn was the 2022 Chubb Fellow at Yale University’s Timothy Dwight College; she also holds honorary doctorates from Middlebury College—where she spent four summers in the total-immersion German, French, and Japanese language programs—and Ball State University, where there are three scholarships in her name.

OMER MEIR WELLBER, Conductor

Omer Meir Wellber has established himself as one of today’s leading conductors of operatic and orchestral repertoire alike. He is Music Director of the Volksoper Wien, Music Director of the Teatro Massimo Palermo and Music Director of the Toscanini Festival. From a long association, he is also Music Director of the Raanana Symphonette in Israel. Omer Meir Wellber is a regular guest with the Gewandhausorchester zu Leipzig, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, among others.

In his first season as the new music director of the Volksoper Wien, Omer Meir Wellber lead the new production of Tchaikovsky’s Jolanthe und der Nussknacker in a production by Volksoper director Lotte de Beer, as well as repertoire performances of Mozart’s Zauberflöte and Puccini’s La Bohème. As he will be responsible for the musical life of the Volksoper and for the development of the ensemble, orchestra and choir, Omer Meir Wellber has introduced that the Volksoper Orchestra performs symphony concerts at the Konzerthaus and Volksoper. At the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Omer Meir Wellber opened the new season with the Kaiserrequiem, his own new creation with director Marco Gandini, which combines Viktor Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Mozart’s Requiem. The season also includes symphony concerts and a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Guest performances in the 2022/23 season will take Omer Meir Wellber to the USA with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to Switzerland with the Tonhalle Orchestra, to Stockholm for concerts with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, to Munich’s Isarphilharmonie with the Munich Philharmonic, and to the Vienna State Opera with Wagner’s Lohengrin. With the Vienna Symphony, Wellber embarked on a European tour in November to 9 cities in 5 countries, including Hamburg, Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Warsaw.

The most recent CD recordings with Omer Meir Wellber were released in May 2022: The Mandolin Seasons with Jacob Reuven and the Sinfonietta Leipzig (musicians of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra) on the Hyperion label and Pop Songs with cellist Jan Vogler and the BBC Philharmonic on the Sony label. Previous releases include the first joint recording by Wellber and the BBC Philharmonic of works by Ben-Haim (Chandos), Tavener’s No longer mourn for me with Steven Isserlis and the Philarmonia Orchestra (Hyperion), and DVD releases of Wagner’s Parsifal (Unitel/C Major), Bellini’s I capuleti e i montecchi (Naxos), Puccuni’s Madama Butterfly (Opus Arte), Boito’s Mefistofele (Unitel), Verdi’s Aida (Bel Air Classique), and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Unitel).

Omer Meir Wellber made his literary debut with his first novel “Die vier Ohnmachten des Chaim Birkner” published by Berlin Verlag in autumn 2019. The novel was also published in Italian by Sellerio Editore and in French by Éditions du sous-sol. “Die Angst, das Risiko und die Liebe – Momente mit Mozart” was published in the spring of 2017.

Omer Meir Wellber’s longstanding collaboration with the Semperoper Dresden culminated in his position as Principal Guest Conductor from 2018 to 2022. Highlights of his time as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic included concerts at Bridgewater Hall as well as at the BBC Proms and guest concerts at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Omer Meir Wellber served as the Music Director at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia from 2010 to 2014, leading both orchestral and operatic performances including Eugene Onegin which was published on DVD by C Major. He conducted Verdi’s operatic masterpiece trifecta – Rigoletto (2011), La Traviata (2012) and Il Trovatore (2013) at the Vienna Festival. From 2008 to 2010, Omer Meir Wellber assisted Daniel Barenboim at the Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden and at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala.

His close ties to his native Israel are evident in his collaboration with the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, of which he has been Music Director since 2009 and for over ten years he was regular guest conductor at the Israeli Opera. In 2007 he debuted with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2016 led the orchestra in its residency at the Dresden Music Festival. The conductor also is a Good Will Ambassador for Save a Child’s Heart.

Omer Meir Wellber plays a custom-built accordion, model POLARIS, from the renowned Italian accordion manufacturer PIGINI.