Programme Guide

Beethoven’s Eroica marks a radical turning point in the history of the symphony: with its extended length and its ideological dimension, it points ahead to works by Mahler and Shostakovich that were composed much later. With the Eroica, the composer also virtually founded a new genre, that of the heroic symphony. The four movements stand out from one another through their strongly individual characters – and yet come together in a harmonious dramaturgy of overwhelming effect.

Since his complete recording of Beethoven’s symphonies with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Paavo Järvi has been regarded as one of the most accomplished interpreters of this repertoire: in this concert programme, the conductor juxtaposes the musical revolutionary with works of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Les Offrandes oubliées (The Forgotten Offerings) is an early work by Olivier Messiaen, in which the characteristic elements of his musical language are already clearly evident: the strong reference to the Christian faith, an expressiveness that alternates between pain and hymnody, and a harmony in which dissonance and captivating melody are not contradictory.

In an interview for the Digital Concert Hall, the composer Toshio Hosokawa once said that the significance of his Japanese origins only became clear to him during his studies in Germany. Since then, he has made both European and Japanese music references in his works. The premiere performance of Hosokawa’s new violin concerto features Daishin Kashimoto, the Philharmoniker’s 1st concertmaster.