... at the piano with orchestra members, moderating, conducting at the Wandelkonzert and Night Session - from November  22 to 25 at the Konzerthaus.

Franz Schubert knew - and felt - that music strengthens friendships! His circle of friends met again and again for chamber music, and he wrote wonderful works for them. 

In the tradition of these "Schubertiades", a Schubertian "German Dance" and his "Trout Quintet" were played as an ode to musical friendship - with Joana Mallwitz at the piano, our 1st concertmaster Sayako Kusaka, Johannes Jahnel (concertmaster 2nd violins, only in the "German Dance" No. 5 ), Matthias Gallien (associate principal violist), Andreas Timm (associate principal cellist) and Stephan Petzold (principal double bassist).

The interim talk with general director Sebastian Nordmann focussed, among other things, on spontaneity when making music together. This can be realised in a completely different way in chamber music than when conducting a symphony orchestra, of course. Joana Mallwitz enjoyed the "Trout" with the orchestra members all the more. And revealed that she sometimes regrets that as a conductor she "doesn't get to make a single note sound."

The Kurt Sanderling Orchestra Academy also made an appearance as part of "Mostly Mallwitz". It was moderated by our chief conductor, who emphasized how important the academy's work is for orchestral training.

At the Espresso-Konzert, flautist Yeseul Bang and percussionist Christoph Lindner played works by Telemann and Cangelesi. Violins Hans Henning Ernst, Elena Cotrone, Phoebe White together with KHO concertmaster Ulrike Petersen as guest, violas Mao Konishi and Barok Bostanci as well as cellists Hyejin Kim and Sofia Ogas delighted the audience with Mendelssohn's eternally young Octet op. 20. Finally, Joana Mallwitz took her place at the piano for the encore.

Stories, whether in words or music, inspire and connect people from different walks of life. In the first episode of their new "Night Sessions" format entitled "IM.PULS", Joana Mallwitz and the Konzerthausorchester had minimal techno pioneer and composer Robert Henke aka Monolake as a talk guest. How does it feel to be completely in the pulse of music, what do musical impulses trigger? Pieces from Vivaldi to Nikodijevic, Beethoven to Anna Meredith and Monolake were played live by the Konzerthausorchester and played electronically.

From Vienna via Finland and the USA to Mexico? At last evening's Wandelkonzert, this was possible without any tiresome travelling to the rhythm of dance music. The concert began with the Konzerthausorchester, Joana Mallwitz, Strauss' Beautiful Blue Danube and Bartók's wild Romanian folk dances.

Afterwards, the audience split into two groups: one group headed first to the Small Hall to join Konzerthaus Brass Berlin: our entire trumpet section, one horn player, three trombonists and our solo timpanist and solo drummer plus guests awaited them with swing from Irving Berlin to Brian Prima. The other half first made their way to the top floor: in the Werner-Otto-Saal, two violins, a viola and a double bass from the Konzerthausorchester gathered around our Finnish cellist and founder of ensemble  "Tango Finlandés" Taneli Turunen Taneli studied singing as well as cello and sings Finnish tango, old German "schlager" and humorous songs with great passion. He hat also brought Valentin Butt on the bayan from his original ensemble for this evening.

Then, the groups swapped halls. At the end, everyone came together again in the Great Hall to enjoy a performance by dancer Meier Eden and music by Bernstein, Márquez and Ginastera. Anyone who wanted to dance themselves afterwards was cordially invited: to the party in the foyer with DJ Mehmet Aslan!

Photos: Simon Pauly