Lower Rhine Symphony Orchestra in Krefeld and Mönchengladbach
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The new concert season is as topical as ever
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Conductor Mihkel Kütson and the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker have put together a varied program despite the corona pandemic.
Photo: Mark Mocnik / Mocnik, Mark (moc)
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Environmental protection, the pollution of the seas, the Ukraine war – these are the themes the Lower Rhine Symphony Orchestra take up in their program.
Many young musicians are shown in the program booklet of the Lower Rhine Symphony Orchestra. Young musicians who will play compositions that may not be immediately familiar to everyone. But there are also classics like Schumann, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. This is nothing new, general music director Mihkel Kütson always tries to put together a mixture of the familiar and the new. And yet one has the feeling that the coming concert season will be bolder, fresher and more up-to-date than ever.
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At the start of the season in August, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” takes us into the world of 1001 Nights. Guest will be soloist Dinara Klinton, who will play Mili Balakirev’s first piano concerto. If you miss it, you can listen to it at home: the new CD of the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker with works by Balakirew will be available from August 23rd. It also features Klinton, who recorded the first piano concerto in May 2021.
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A special violinist will be a guest at the 2nd symphony concert in October: the Norwegian Eldbjorg Hemsing. She will play the violin concerto “Fire Ritual” written by the Chinese composer Tan Dun for the victims of all wars. When Kütson chose the work, “all was right with the world”. The Ukraine war makes the play more topical than ever, “the time couldn’t be more appropriate,” he says. It will also be exceptional in terms of performance: some of the musicians will play between the audience, the soloist will move through the hall.
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In December there will be a reunion with drummer Alexej Gerassimez. He will bring the drum concerto “Leviathan” by John Psathas, which deals with the pollution of the seas. So that it doesn’t get too apocalyptic, there is also “Sea Calm and Happy Journey” by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Schumann’s “Rheinische” – which can be brought into the present day with a look at the unhealthy Rhine.
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In February, guest conductor Marcus Bosch will conduct Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Konstantin Emelyanov and Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. With Shao-Chia Lü, another guest conductor will come to Gladbach in March 2023. He will lead a sample of the Taiwanese composer Gordon Shi-Wen Chin’s Symphony “Taiwan”. It is about the struggle for independence that has been going on for many decades.
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Before the 6th symphony concert in April 2023, Kütson is hosting a master class for four young conductors, who will then conduct the symphony concert. They divide the program among themselves, the audience will always experience all four. The 7th symphony concert in June 2023 is going to America: in addition to Samuel Barber, a symphony by the Afro-American composer Florence Price will also be played. “It’s an exciting musical accent that we haven’t had in the programs before,” says Kütson. She was ignored for a long time, her works are only now being discovered.
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In addition to the symphony concerts, there are well-established formats such as Kütson’s Happy Hour, the “Belcanto” opera gala, a gospel concert and the “heroes of the silver screen”.
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Info The 22/23 concert year booklet is available for download at www.theater-kr-mg.de/spielzeitheft-22-23 and is available at the box office and soon at the usual display locations.
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