Kent Nagano continued his commitment to contemporary works in his final official Hamburg subscription programme with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, after a long and productive ten-year tenure: the world premiere of Alex Nante’s Anāhata, a luminous meditation on spiritual awakening and human connectedness. The 50-minute work draws its name from the heart chakra in Indian philosophy—symbolising love, compassion and inner unity. It is structured in 15 continuous movements without any pause. Each movement explores a different emotional or spiritual state of the heart, inspired by sacred texts in multiple languages, from San Juan de la Cruz and Hildegard von Bingen to Rūmī and CG Jung.
The large orchestral forces – augmented by soprano Mojca Erdmann, baritone Evan Hughes, organ and the radiant Audi Jugendchorakademie – created a lush sound world. With a restrained harmonic language and slow harmonic shifts, the music felt both contemporary and timeless. At times, it evoked the atmosphere of a candlelit chant in a stone pilgrimage chapel, echoing the mystic sensuality of Szymanowski. The music writing, as Nante wished, is indeed very communicative.
The performance was striking for its emotional sincerity. Erdmann and Hughes sang with clarity and conviction, always rooted in the musical line. The choir maintained remarkable precision across complex textures. Throughout the piece, all vocal forces breathed as one with the orchestra, achieving pinnacle moments of extraordinary acoustic density and volume, yet always with absolute control and poise. In one breathtaking passage, the organ rose in a transcendent solo, performed by Olivier Latry, immediately transforming the large hall into a resonant spiritual space. Towards the end, which concluded in meditative silence, choir members slowly dispersed across the hall, whispering “Heart, awake” in over a dozen languages, enveloping the audience in a ritualistic, overlapping sonic cloud.
After the interval came Brahms’ Fourth Symphony where Nagano’s interpretation balanced structural clarity with emotional depth. The first movement started with a slightly slower tempo, inviting listeners into a cautious yet intimate space. It developed with controlled rubato and transparency between voices, growing organically towards its climax. The second movement’s modal melancholy was particularly affecting, with principal winds delivering eloquent solos over burnished strings. Nagano found surprising liveliness in the third movement before unleashing the finale’s inexorable power. Structured as a Passacaglia, the finale pays homage to tradition while simultaneously pointing forward, embodying creative continuity. It was delivered with incredible intensity, as the orchestra’s sections unleashed their full power in a unified surge.
In this thoughtfully curated program, Nagano traced a path from transcendence to earthly grounding, crafting a deeply moving reflection on legacy and renewal. With the premiere of Anāhata – a work speaking a contemporary spiritual language – and the profound resonance of Brahms’ Fourth, Nagano framed his departure as a benediction for continuity and transformation. As he hopes for the audience to experience, Hamburg’s music culture is alive: deeply rooted, vibrantly present and boldly oriented toward what lies ahead.
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