Our principal tuba player Michael Vogt celebrates the "Year of the Tuba" with orchestra colleagues and singing in the Kleine Saal on April 12:

"With 'Tuba, Songs, Brass Music & Symphonies', I can satisfy four passions at once. Because I have also been travelling as a solo musician for many years, composers have repeatedly dedicated pieces to me. Some of these and my own compositions are on the programme, from songs for tuba and voice to a work for four woodwinds and four brass instruments with two singers and symphonies. My symphonies sometimes last two minutes, sometimes twelve. I'm trying to revive the early Baroque sinfonia, which was always a short piece. We also play the models, for example by Heinrich Schütz. A special guest is the chansonnier Hans-Eckhart Wenzel, with whom I have been friends for 40 years and whose texts, such as ‘Das kleine Meertagebuch‘ (‘The little sea diary‘), have repeatedly inspired me to compose."

Sofia Gieysztor is part of our team at the stage door. In her free time, the student plays the violin and baroque violin. For her, the Mozart programme by our Artist in Residence Augustin Hadelich with the Berlin Baroque Soloists under the direction of Philharmoniker concertmaster Noah Bendix-Bagley on April 8 is the highlight of the concert month.

"I've been a Hadelich fan for many years. His sound is something very special to me - a mixture of intense clarity and tenderness. Together with the dry freshness of the baroque soloists and the strength and substance of the Philharmoniker, it's an unusual, exciting mixture - especially for Mozart. Perhaps it's not an intuitive combination, but the contrasts work very well together, I think."

Clarinettist Norbert Möller is particularly looking forward to a chamber concert with an ensemble of wind and string players from the Konzerthausorchester on April 25. The Serenade in D major op. 11 by Johannes Brahms will take centre stage in a special version:

"We will perform the reconstructed original version of the Serenade for a nonet in the instrumentation of flute, two clarinets (no oboe!), bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass. This Brahmsian chamber music in its diversity between divertimento and great symphonic music is always a pleasure to play. I think the audience will be thrilled by the huge variety of themes, diverse characters, interesting instrumentation and 'great musical cinema' in small form... And if there are already two clarinettists, it makes sense to include Leoš Janáček's sextet 'Mládi' ('Youth') in the programme: a wonderful, thoroughly Moravian-sounding suite in which piccolo flute and bass clarinet complement the wind quintet."

In the history of music, it is not uncommon for a work to undergo an odyssey lasting several years before it is performed - Christian Jost's Violin Concerto No. 2 is in the best of company. The composer, who also hosts our "2 x hören" format, is looking forward to the performance on April 26 & 27, when it will be performed together with Richard Strauss' "Sinfonia Domestica".

"Originally composed for the festive programme of the 2020/21 anniversary season at the Konzerthaus Berlin, my 'Concert noir' initially had to be performed differently than planned due to the pandemic. The work was actually created twice, as the world premiere for Musikfest Berlin in September 2020 only took place with a small orchestra due to social distancing rules. In addition to the solo violin part, which had to be retained, I composed the orchestral parts for just 12 players as 'Concerto noir redux'. As a work with a large orchestra, it is now finally being performed for the first time in Germany with soloist Christian Tetzlaff and the Konzerthausorchester under Marc Albrecht. I could hardly be more grateful!"