With Jakub Hrůša at the Elbphilharmonie

Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie
20:00 Uhr

We visited the Elbphilharmonie for the first time last season, giving a tremendous concert performance of »Don Giovanni« in its entirety, which inspired a critic to write: »Every bar breathes and throbs. One would probably have to think back decades rather than years to remember the last time Hamburg enjoyed such a musically satisfying evening of Mozart opera.« We are very excited to have been invited back, and this time will be performing one of our signature works: Smetana’s »Má vlast (My Fatherland)«, a picture book brimming with musical images from our Bohemian homeland, which thus forms a perfect match for our motto of »symphonic tales«. Albrecht Mayer, who was our solo oboist for many years and is now thrilling audiences across the globe, will accompany us to the city on the Elbe. He will interpret Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, which is a real rarity in the oeuvre of this master of the symphonic poem: Strauss regarded the solo concerto as an old-fashioned genre too closely associated with the age of »hyped-up virtuosos«. Despite this, he succeeded in producing an exciting and indeed highly virtuoso work! He composed it shortly after the Second World War – at the suggestion of an American soldier, as legend would have it. He referred to it ironically as a »wrist exercise«, written »to chase away the boredom of leisurely hours, as one cannot spend all day playing skat.« He also said while composing it: »I’m not working, I’m amusing myself!« The result was a supreme achievement: in the concerto, one scene is followed by the next – and the oboe slips from one role into another, like in a masque!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Albrecht Mayer Oboe

Richard Strauss Konzert für Oboe und kleines Orchester D-Dur
Bedřich Smetana »Mà vlast« (»Mein Vaterland«)