SAT / 03 / MAY
?AIMEZ-VOUS BRAHMS? - OPENING CONCERT
7.30 p.m. / MHL / Great Hall
Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain
Satie/Korte: Monsieur Satie - Phonométrographe for orchestra (2021/22)
Ravel: Alborada del gracioso
Gabriel Schwabe Violoncello
MHL Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Ward Conductor (Aachen)
>> Admission 15 / 20 Euro (reduced 9 / 13 Euro)


SUN / 04 / MAY
?AIMEZ-VOUS BRAHMS? - SYMPHONY CONCERT
7.30 p.m. / MHL / Great Hall
Repeat from May 3 (7.30 pm)
Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain
Satie/Korte: Monsieur Satie - Phonométrographe for orchestra (2021/22)
Ravel: Alborada del gracioso
Gabriel Schwabe Violoncello
MHL Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Ward Conductor (Aachen)
>> Admission 15 / 20 Euro (reduced 9 / 13 Euro)

13 questions for guest conductor Christopher Ward and principal cellist Gabriel Schwabe

1. Dear Christopher Ward, you are conducting the MHL Symphony Orchestra at this year's Brahms Festival symphony concerts. What fascinates you about Ravel?
CW - The orchestration. I don't think there is another composer who orchestrates so precisely, diversely and evocatively. When I study a Ravel score and then hear the music at orchestral rehearsals, it's like a small miracle for me every time. To make it clear: With some works, you can guess that they were composed at the piano. Brahms, for example, was a pianist, as we can tell from various passages: Some of his violin parts are easier to realise on the piano than on the violin. With Ravel, the music is so pure and completely tailored to the orchestra. I would probably like to get to know every composer, but Ravel is in my top five. What a human being! What an imagination! And what a dedication to realising this fantasy.

2. What is Ravel's ‘Le tombeau de Couperin’ (The Tomb of Couperin) about?
CW - Ravel wrote the work during the First World War. It is a tribute to the composer, organist and harpsichordist Fran?ois Couperin, but also a ‘memorial’ to the many fallen soldiers - including some of Ravel's friends. Despite the title theme, which is reminiscent of mourning and loss, the music sounds very light and cheerful in places, even solemn. This is typical of Ravel: he manages to portray sadness or heaviness in a subtle and elegant way, often in an almost dance-like style that conveys a carefree joy through lightness and playful rhythms.

3. Mister Schwabe, what significance does Dutilleux's ‘Tout un monde lointain’ (A very distant world) have for you as a soloist?
GS - The piece is one of the most fascinating works for cello of our time. I have been studying it intensively for many years. I learnt it during my studies and have always been deeply moved by it. When I heard Mstislav Rostropovich's recording for the first time, I was incredibly impressed by the way the cello speaks in this music - especially in dialogue with the orchestra. During my studies at the Kronberg Academy, I had the great good fortune to study music theory and compositional theory with the composer Claus Kühnl. He was one of the first to write an important German article on Dutilleux: Poet of the Night. The title of the article already summarises so much of what this music is all about! We talked a lot about his music - especially as Kühnl himself was in contact with Dutilleux. He showed me a lot of things, gave me a glimpse into the composer's workshop. I still benefit from that and still ask him about musically complex topics that are buzzing around in my head.

4. What else connects you to Dutilleux?
GS - The instrument, built by Giuseppe Guarneri (Cremona, 1695), which I am now fortunate enough to play. Thanks to the support of a sponsoring family, it found its way to me. It previously belonged to Wolfgang B?ttcher, who played the German premiere of Dutilleux's Cello Concerto with Hans Zender and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on this instrument in 1980. The composer was also present, and of course they worked on it together. That's not only a particularly nice anecdote, but it also does something to me when I play Dutilleux's music on this instrument. Amazingly, this will be my first time performing the piece in front of an audience. I've tried several times to put it on a programme, but as it has a particularly large orchestra and is very demanding, it hasn't worked out so far. So I'm all the more pleased to be performing the work in the MHL's Great Hall.

5. What is important when developing a work?
GS - For me, it always starts with the score. First of all, I want to see: How does the music speak to me without me knowing anything about it? Only then do the history of the work's creation, the character and phase of the composer's life come into play. Otherwise, I could run the risk of putting something too easily into perspective. Something special already takes place during the development process, because I really have to appropriate the music. It has to become my music so that I can play it.
CW - Absolutely right! And another question is essential: does the music only exist at the moment of making music or does it not already exist in an abstract, untouchable form beforehand? I am convinced that a score has a life outside of the composer.

6. And in practice? How do you acquire music?
GS - I actually make hardly any sketches. My teacher Frans Helmerson said: ‘If an idea is good, then I memorise it.’ And if it's not, then it's okay to think of something new. That keeps the process alive.

7. How does the audience best encounter Dutilleux's work?
GS - With fresh ears. That's quite enough. And for those who like to go to concerts with prior knowledge: Dutilleux sees music particularly in the context of silence. The important thing for him is: Where does the sound come from? Where does it go? This becomes very clear at the beginning of his cello concerto. It begins with noise. The cello line works its way up from this. Dutilleux recounted a special moment during the premiere of the work in Aix-en-Provence: ‘When the piece began with the percussion, the wind was blowing through the trees and the rustling of the leaves was clearly audible. That was what he was looking for. The ‘permanent variation’, a term coined by Claus Kühnl, is also essential. Dutilleux's cello concerto is not music that clearly presents and processes a theme, but everything grows apart. This music is constantly changing, and I think that contributes a lot to the perceived mystery.

8. What role do Baudelaire's poems from ‘Les fl eurs du mal’ (The Flowers of Evil) play? Didn't they inspire Dutilleux to write the work?
GS - At the time when Rostropovich asked Dutilleux to write a cello concerto for him, Dutilleux was already in the midst of studying Baudelaire's works. He was not only reading Les fl eurs du mal, but all kinds of works by him. The concerto was inspired by his writings, but was written independently of them. It is therefore not programmatic music. With the titles of the movements, which are very specific quotations from Baudelaire's book of poems, he has retrospectively tried to capture the character of a movement as precisely as possible. So there is a reciprocal effect. Dutilleux writes in his memoirs that it is not crucial to connect the music with Baudelaire. For us, on the other hand, who play his music and want to understand it as well as possible, it can be helpful, because nothing can capture the character of music as well as poetry in its original language.

9. What characterises Erik Satie? We will be listening to his ‘Monsieur Satie - Phonométrographe for orchestra’ in the arrangement by Oliver Korte.
CW - Erik Satie is known for his unconventional and often humorous works. In a text from 1912, he declared himself a ‘phonométrographe’, which means ‘sound meter’. He claimed that his works were ‘pure phonometrics’ and that he took more pleasure in measuring a sound than in hearing it. Satie's works are often ironically titled and created using unorthodox compositional techniques.

10. Mister Ward, what is your collaboration with the MHL Symphony Orchestra like? Does your approach differ when you work with a student orchestra or a professional orchestra?
CW - We will tune in well and listen to each other. Some of the pieces are really complicated and the students have to master the technical aspects. In return, we have more rehearsal time than with a professional orchestra. That's a joy, because it also allows us to build a deep relationship with the music. And young musicians always bring enthusiasm with them - from the beginning of rehearsals to the end. I'm really looking forward to that!

11. The motto of the Brahms Festival asks ‘Aimez-vous Brahms?’. What is your answer?
CW - Bien s?r!
GS - Yes!

12. What references do you see in the symphony programme to Brahms' life and work? Would he have liked the programme?
CW - Johannes Brahms had a complicated relationship with France. Bizet's Carmen is an exception. It is almost the only work by a French composer that Brahms greatly appreciated. He was known to take a critical view of the French music scene. Perhaps after listening to the programme, the romance would have started properly!

13. And what excites you about the programme?
CW - I relish every opportunity to conduct Ravel. And I'm a big fan of Gabriel! We already know each other through joint projects.
GS - There are really only good reasons why we always enjoy working together. When I rehearse a solo with Christopher, he plays the orchestral part on the piano. This creates a very natural musical exchange because the respective musical intention becomes clear without having to explain much. We always find something new together. And after the rehearsals, we sit down together and ask: How do we do this? How do we want to organise the transition? What is the new tempo? We exchange buzzwords. Ultimately, it's about understanding what's going on in the other person's inner world and how we can bring our ideas together in the best possible way.

University of Musik 新万博体育_万博体育足彩-app|官网 (MHL)
Great Hall
Entrance: An der Obertrave
23552 新万博体育_万博体育足彩-app|官网
www.mh-luebeck.de

Brahms Festival Ticket
for all evening concerts (symphony concerts and themed concerts in the Great Hall) 80 Euro (concessions 50 Euro), for all concerts in the Villa Brahms 30 Euro (Hansensaal) or 20 Euro (Scharwenka Room and Vestibule)

Symphony concert
15 / 20 Euro (reduced 9 / 13 Euro)

All prices include all fees. 10% discount for holders of the NDR Kultur Card at the box office. Tickets at all advance booking offices of 新万博体育_万博体育足彩-app|官网-Tickets and online at www.luebeck-ticket.de.

Subject to change without notice.