Summer marches in: Mahler's Third Symphony at the Elbphilharmonie

Kent Nagano and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

By Matthew Rye, 03 May 2022

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“Nagano shaped Mahler's concluding hymn to love with barely a hint of sentimentality”

Reviewed at Elbphilharmonie: Grand Hall, Hamburg on 2 May 2022

Mahler, Symphony no. 3 in D minor

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Kent Nagano, Conductor

Gerhild Romberger, Contralto

Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper

Frauenliebe und -sterben: Kratzer’s triple bill at Staatsoper Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 15th April

Director Tobias Kratzer engineers a haunting pasticcio of Schumann, Bartók and Zemlinsky, tracing the domestic sphere’s shift from romantic surrender to the blood-soaked secrets of a century-spanning house.

****1

Fast Forward: Hamburg Ballet’s mixed bill proves a mixed success

Vikki Jane Vile, 22nd February

All that glistens... the world premiere of Xie Xin’s The Moon in the Ocean is the highlight of a mixed bill programme spanning 90 years of choreography.

***11

Vampires, Disney and Donald Trump: Monster’s Paradise in Hamburg

Kevin W Ng, 1st February

Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek take on Donald Trump in their latest operatic collaboration.

****1

Kent Nagano's farewell to Hamburg: Nante and Brahms in dialogue

Mengguang Huang, 29th June

Kent Nagano’s farewell in Hamburg showcases a spiritual dialogue between tradition and innovation, pairing Brahms’ profound Fourth Symphony with the luminous world premiere of Alex Nante’s Anāhata.

****1

Unsuk Chin's opera Die dunkle Seite des Mondes premieres in Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 31st May

At Staatsoper Hamburg, Unsuk Chin’s new opera The Dark Side of the Moon immerses audiences in an hypnotic, introspective journey, where dreams, science and psyche collide in a rigorously crafted, thought-provoking spectacle.

****1

5-star musicianship in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie

Simon Thompson, 6th April

Our writer is dazzled by the venue, but the music that the Hamburgers play in it proves pretty dazzling too; Martinů’s Double Concerto is a showcase for both the players and the hall.

*****

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).