Art experience in the Port of Hamburg: a swarm of hundreds of illuminated drones sets the Elbphilharmonie in the limelight for the opening of the International Music Festival.
The Hamburg International Music Festival opened with a concert and a spectacular light installation.
Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert conducted the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and Joseph Haydn’s oratorio “Die Creation” was on the program in the Elbphilharmonie. The Dutch artist duo Drift then presented their installation “Breaking Waves”: A swarm of hundreds of illuminated drones staged the concert hall – choreographed to the second movement of Thomas Adès’ piano concerto. The kinetic work of art is to be repeated on the three following evenings at 10:30 p.m.
Until June 1st, more than 60 events can be experienced in the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle under the motto “Nature” – including Gustav Mahler’s “Third Symphony”, “The Alpine Symphony” by Richard Strauss, “Der Freischütz” by Carl Maria von Weber, “Rusalka” by Antonin Dvořák and Franz Schubert’s “Winter Journey”.
Performances by soloists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter and Elisabeth Leonskaja, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Pekka Kuusisto, Igor Levit and Sir András Schiff are planned. They are accompanied by well-known orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orchester de Paris, the Munich Philharmonic and the Filarmonica della Scala. The Finnish rising star Klaus Mäkelä conducts all seven symphonies by Jean Sibelius with the Oslo Philharmonic. The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra will give a benefit concert at the end of its tour. (dpa)