Ilona Schmiel (Foto: Priska Ketterer)

The Season 2020/21

Dear Audience

Many questions and much uncertainty have accompanied us and you through the last weeks. But thanks to the concerts at the end of the season, we were able to find the first answers and empathize with the new situation in the concert hall. So we are pleased to be able to present to you optimistically the programmes for August and September and from January to July.

We are planning our programme at shorter notice than usual in order to be able to react to the new requirements for us as concert organisers from August to December. We always want to offer you the best possible and most enjoyable concert experience. Therefore we publish the programs monthly from August to December. Background information and the big season interview with Paavo Järvi can be found in the opening publication.

This season now stands for flexibility, for surprises, for the highest quality and - especially during the first months - also for a return to live music in various instrumentations up to the large orchestra.

Musically, there is hardly a better partner for the necessary flexibility than our new Creative Chair Arvo Pärt. I am very happy that we chose him together with Paavo. We made this decision even before the lockdown, without knowing what was in store for us ... Because we now have the opportunity to perform his music in so many versions that it will be possible to do so even from the beginning of the season in small and large formations.

Our in focus artists Katia and Marielle Labèque and Focus artist Olli Mustonen also stand for fresh, agile and flexible concepts and interpretations. Olli Mustonen is crazy and wonderful at the same time. And, what is very gratifying under the new circumstances: He always reacts to the respective situation. The Duo Labèque is characterized by an unbelievable curiosity and by refined, variable instrumentations: With their project «Minimalist Dream House» we can start right away, because there are only four people on stage. A great project, in which music and lighting design enter into a very special symbiosis.

Furthermore, it is a great luck that we can finally introduce the accordionist Ksenija Sidorova to you this season. She will play the accordion concert «Prophecy» by Erkki-Sven Tüür in March 2021.

It is also particularly important to us to conclude the Tchaikovsky cycle we have begun and to start a new cycle: Mendelssohn! The study of Mendelssohn and his work is also a long-cherished project for our orchestra. Because if we record all the symphonies and the «Midsummer Night's Dream» in this density, it is possible to immerse ourselves in Mendelssohn's very special musical world. This repertoire also fits very well into the Tonhalle Maag - because of the instrumentation, because of the transparency of these compositions. And last but not least, Mendelssohn's music is very close to Paavo Järvi. For him it is «a Midsummer Night's Dream come true».

From January to July 2021, discover the full range of our concerts, from chamber music and recitals to family and student concerts and the great orchestral sound. Guest performances are also firmly scheduled: With the residency project we are bringing three programmes from Zurich to Hamburg, combining music by Pärt, Schumann and Tchaikovsky with three outstanding soloists.

In the Conductors' Academy Paavo Järvi passes on his knowledge. Guest conductors closely associated with us and new guests provide exciting impulses with their special programmes.

We look forward to discovering together live on stage and with you in the audience!

yours

Ilona Schmiel

Concerts 2020/21

Subscriptions 2020/21

We thank our partners