“Identity” as core theme of 2019 Hamburg International Music Festival: advance bookings available for over 50 concerts

Hamburg, 20/11/2018 – “Identity” will be the core theme of the fourth Hamburg International Music Festival, which will take place from 27 April to 29 May 2019. Following three previous editions in 2014, 2016 and 2018, the Hamburg International Music Festival is now for the first time setting course for an annual cycle and will thus be at the top of Hamburg's calendar of events. Tickets for the Elbphilharmonie, Laeiszhalle, Kampnagel and Deichtorhallen venues will be available from Tuesday, 20 November. Music-themed weekend packages are available for booking online at www.hamburg-travel.com

Hamburg breathes music – and will also be doing so in 2019. Boasting a superlative programme of events with numerous highlights, the Hamburg International Music Festival from 27 April to 29 May 2019 will feature more than 50 concerts and 37 programme items. Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti (1923–2006), who lectured at the Hamburg School of Music and Theater (HfMT) for 16 years, will be in the focus of this year's festival. One of the top events here includes three performances of Ligeti’s only opera, “Le Grand Macabre” with renowned soloists and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert, the orchestra’s designated chief conductor.

Highlights of the music festival: in the kaleidoscope of sounds

Over a period of four weeks, Hamburg’s main orchestras will be performing at their best as they have put together an international programme with many renowned guest artists. Among the illustrious guests of the music festival will be violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Christian Tetzlaff, pianists Hélène Grimaud, Krystian Zimerman, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Jason Moran, soprano Elīna Garanča, baritone Christian Gerhaher, Sasha Waltz & Guests, the Arditti Quartet as well as the Orchestre de Paris, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Ludwig Orchestra with conductor Barbara Hannigan. During the festival weeks, nine major works, or groups of works, from Ligeti's oeuvre will be staged as part of twelve performances. The most elaborate production here will be an adaptation of Ligeti's only opera “Le Grand Macabre”, a production that was specifically created for the Elbphilharmonie. 44 of the 52 concerts will take place in the Elbphilharmonie, 27 of these in its Grand Hall, four in the Laeiszhalle, and three at Kampnagel.

The festive programme will be opened with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra performing György Ligeti’s Requiem and Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony under the baton of chief conductor Kent Nagano. Guest orchestras will include e.g. the Staatskapelle Berlin with its principal conductor Daniel Barenboim, who will be presenting a work for string orchestra by the hitherto little-known Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas. Other works include e.g. Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B flat major KV 595 – with Daniel Barenboim as soloist – as well as Sergei Prokofiev's Cantata op. 78 from the theme of Sergej Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky”.

Highlights of the 2019 festival at a glance:

Saturday, 27/04 Requiem and Resurrection, Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra