• Wed 17.10.
  • 8.00 p.m.
  • Bremen
    ·Die Glocke

Best friends – reloaded

5th Highlight Subscription Concert

Works by Byrd, Purcell, Tippett, Britten and Haydn

There’s a very special musical – and personal – bond between Pekka Kuusisto and The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen. In 2017, the Kammer­philharmonie musicians honoured this long-standing love affair by awarding the title ›Artistic Best Friend‹ of the orchestra for the first time. The two-year series of concerts will continue in 2018 – again with Pekka Kuusisto as soloist and director from the lectern. Again, the emphasis is on a work by Benjamin Britten. On top of that, at this evening’s performance, the ›Artistic Best Friend‹ will make his first appearance as a musical arranger, with his own adaptation of the Sanctus by William Byrd. This very exciting programme rich in associations also features a début performance by Anna Lucia Richter, whose solo career as a vocalist has been one of the most meteoric of the past few years.

Programme

    • William Byrd (1543–1623)
    • Sanctus (arr. by Pekka Kuusisto)
    • Henry Purcell (1659–1695 )
    • ›Let the night perish‹ (Job’s curse) (arr. by Nico Muhly)
    • Michael Tippett (1905–1998)
    • Mvt II ›Lament‹ from Divertimento on ›Sellinger’s Round‹
    • Benjamin Britten (1913–1976 )
    • ›The Illuminations‹ for high voice and string orchestra
    • Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
    • Symphony No. 99 in E flat major Hob. I:99

Violin

Pekka Kuusisto

Violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto is widely recognised for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to the repertoire. He is Artistic Director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Co-Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an artistic partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and has been an ›Artistic Best Friend‹ of the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 2017. Last season, Kuusisto made his debut as a violinist with the Berliner Philharmoniker and as conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. This season he has performed with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

In addition to being an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music who regularly premieres new works himself, Pekka Kuusisto is a gifted improviser, collaborating with people from across the artistic spectrum. Unfettered by conventional genre boundaries, his recent projects have included collaborations with composer and pianist Hauschka and percussionist Samuli Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, electronic music pioneer Brian Crabtree and many more. In 2022, Kuusisto will release his first album as a conductor together with violinist Vilde Frang and the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

Soprano

Christina Landshamer

Christina Landshamer is a versatile artist who, as recitalist as well as with her varied concert and opera repertoire, is in international demand. Her collaborations with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Alan Gilbert, Marek Janowski and many others regularly result in concerts with major international orchestras – from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra to the Orchestre de Paris. In The States, this soprano has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Montreal Symphony Orchestras.

Christina Landshamer has given opera performances at the Komische Oper Berlin, at the Theater an der Wien with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and also with Sir Simon Rattle at the Salzburg Festspiele. At the Nationaloper Amsterdam, she has sung ›Pamina‹ in Simon McBurney’s ›Zauberflöte‹ and ›Woglinde‹ in Wagner’s ›Rheingold‹ at the Bayerischen Staatsoper with Kirill Petrenko conducting. She has also performed in a spectacular La-Fura-dels-Baus production of Haydn’s ›Schöpfung‹ in Paris as well as at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. With her warm, lyric soprano voice, Christina Landshamer is as welcome as a Lieder singer at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade as she is in London, New York or Tokyo.

She has over 50 CD and DVD recordings to her name and was called to take up a professorship for Vocal Studies at the Trossingen College of Music in 2021.

Violin

Pekka Kuusisto

Violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto is widely recognised for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to the repertoire. He is Artistic Director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Co-Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an artistic partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and has been an ›Artistic Best Friend‹ of the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 2017. Last season, Kuusisto made his debut as a violinist with the Berliner Philharmoniker and as conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. This season he has performed with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

In addition to being an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music who regularly premieres new works himself, Pekka Kuusisto is a gifted improviser, collaborating with people from across the artistic spectrum. Unfettered by conventional genre boundaries, his recent projects have included collaborations with composer and pianist Hauschka and percussionist Samuli Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, electronic music pioneer Brian Crabtree and many more. In 2022, Kuusisto will release his first album as a conductor together with violinist Vilde Frang and the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.