Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Axel Kober, conductor
Daniel Müller-Schott, cello

Jörg Widmann: Con brio
Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb/1
Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5

The career of renowned German conductor Axel Kober has led him from theatres in Dortmund and Mannheim, through the Leipzig Opera, where he served as the chief conductor, to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where he has been the artistic director since 2009. He debuted in Bayreuth in 2013, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth, with the opera Tannhäuser.

Cellist Daniel Müller-Schott attracted the attention of the music audience as a 15-year-old, when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Moscow in 1992. Since then, he has performed with numerous acclaimed orchestras (Berlin and Seoul Philharmonics, Gewandhaus Orchestra, NHK Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, radio orchestras from Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig, etc.) and conductors (C. Dutoit, C. Eschenbach, I. Fischer, N. Järvi, D. Kitayenko, A. Nelsons, V. Ashkenazy, V. Petrenko, etc.), as well as having compositions dedicated to him by well-known composers (A. Previn, P. Ruzicka, etc.). Performing on a cello made by Matteo Goffriller in Venice in 1727, he will interpret the first of two concertos for cello and orchestra by Joseph Haydn, who is an honorary member of our Philharmonic Society.

The programme will open with the composition Con brio by contemporary German composer, conductor and clarinettist Jörga Widmann. The work was inspired by another honorary member of the Slovenian Philharmonic, Ludwig van Beethoven, especially the fast movements from his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, whose temperament Widmann has translated into his own musical language. The concert will conclude with Schoenberg’s early symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, which was based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s drama and appeared almost simultaneously with Debussy’s eponymous opera.

Slovenian Philharmonic Choir
Paul Van Nevel, conductor

Jacobus Handl – Gallus (1550–1591)
Credo

Missa super Undique flammatis

Cipriano de Rore (1515–1565)
Santus – Agnus Dei

Missa Praeter rerum seriem

Jacobus Handl – Gallus
Media vita in morte sumus
Planxit David

Jacobus Clemens (ok. 1515–1555 or 1556)
Fremuit spiritu Jesus

Jacobus Handl – Gallus
Dulces exuviae
Turpe sequi casum

Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594)
Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae feria sexta in Parasceve
Lamenatio prima secundi diei
Lamentatio secunda secudni diei
Lamentatio tertia secundi diei

Slovenian music history boasts a composer whose work resounded far beyond the borders of today’s Slovenia or the then province of Carniola during the late Renaissance. The works of Jacob Gallus still form part of the repertoire of many a cappella ensembles today, and can easily be compared to the works of other masters of Renaissance polyphony in terms of quality and originality. In addition to a selection of Gallus’s motets, we will also have an opportunity to hear a cycle of motets by Orlando di Lasso and a mass movement by Cipriano del Rore. Slightly older contemporaries of Gallus, both were Flemish masters of polyphony active in Italy, and are among the most influential composers of their time.

The Slovenian Philharmonic Choir performs a cappella music at the highest level, so we can look forward to first-rate interpretations, led by the excellent Belgian conductor, musicologist and art historian Paul Van Nevel. Many know Van Nevel as the founder of the Huelgas Ensemble, with which he has discovered and represented lesser known Medieval and Renaissance repertoire. He also teaches at the Amsterdam Conservatory and leads Collegium Vocale Gent, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the choir of the Netherlands Bach Society.