Third Symphony Concert

Generally speaking, relatively few well-known concertos have been produced for the clarinet and viola. Max Bruch’s musically rich, yet rarely performed double concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra represents a great advancement in the Romantic repertoire of these two solo instruments. Clarinettist Heiner Rekeszus and violist Thomas Hoffmann – both members of the Hessian State Orchestra – will step outside their usual roles and display their solistic skills in this concert. Also on the programme is Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, one of the Austrian composer’s early works, written during a six-week period in 1888, when the composer was a mere 28 years old. The piece, however, is all but immature, already possessing all of the core Mahlerian characteristics: its close relation to the Lied, the free, groundbreaking approach to symphonic form and the varied, boundary-breaking emotional qualities of the music.

Following his rousing performance conducting “Der fliegende Holländer” in 2015, Patrick Lange once again returns to the podium of the Hessian State Orchestra.  The young conductor has worked as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and was principal conductor at the Komische Oper Berlin. In addition, he regularly conducts various concerts with top orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, Essen Philharmonic, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Munich Radio Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela.