Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester bring a programme rich in Leipzig’s unrivalled musical heritage to the Seoul Arts Center. Felix Mendelssohn, one of Nelsons’s celebrated predecessors as Gewandhauskapellmeister, is represented by his concert overture “Die schöne Melusine” and his atmospheric Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”, inspired by his travels in Britain in 1829 and premiered at the Gewandhaus in 1842. Three years later, Robert Schumann completed his piano concerto, one of the most popular concertos in the repertoire, and that work completes the programme here, performed by Seong-Jin Cho, one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation. PROGRAM Schumann:
Nelsons conducts Bach & Saint-Saëns
Chinese superstar Lang Lang is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No.2, joining the Gewandhausorchester and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons. One of the composer’s most popular works, the second concerto was written in just 17 days in the spring of 1868 and was once humorously described as “beginning like Bach and ending like Offenbach”. Its different styles certainly offer the virtuoso pianist the opportunity to display all sides of his or her technique – as Lang Lang does to scintillating effect here. The Bach-inspired first movement, meanwhile, provides the inspiration for the rest of the programme, which features rare and fascinating J.S. Bach orchestrations by Mahler, Elgar, Reger and Joachim Raff. PROGRAM Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.2; Bach: orchestrations by Mahler, Elgar, Reger and Joachim Raff
Nelsons conducts Weinberg, Schnittke & Tchaikovsky
Many composers dedicate their works to important people or quite often to the musicians premiering them. In his Violin Concerto No° 4, Alfred Schnittke not only prefaced the piece with the dedication to the premiering soloist Gidon Kremer. He also put this dedication into music and placed it at the very beginning of the concerto, known as the “Kremer theme”. Kremer, who turns 75 in February 2022, performed this concerto for the first time at the Leipzig Gewandhaus under the baton of fellow Latvian Andris Nelsons. Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester also performed Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Dreams. PROGRAM: Weinberg: Jüdische Rhapsodie; Schnittke: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 4; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1
Tanglewood Festival 2021 – A.S. Mutter & John Williams
C Major is delighted to present the world premiere performance of John Williams’ Violin Concerto No.2 from the Tanglewood Festival. Williams himself conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the soloist is the work’s dedicatee, Anne-Sophie Mutter. The legendary composer and superstar violinist are old friends and have enjoyed worldwide success together in recent years. Providing an explosive opening to the concert is American composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst (2012) for string orchestra, full of fiery colours and energy and conducted by the BSO’s Music Director Andris Nelsons. He returns to the stage after the Violin Concerto for Copland’s Quiet City, a score that began life as incidental music for a play of the same name, but found fame as a standalone concert piece. With haunting solo parts for trumpet and English horn, this reflective work paints an atmospheric portrait of a city by night. The programme ends with the suite Stravinsky put together in 1919 from his ballet The Firebird, triumphantly premiered in Paris in 1910. PROGRAM Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Across the Stars; Montgomery: Starburst; Copland: Quiet City; Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird
Nelsons conducts Tchaikovsky and Weinberg
With this concert, Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester continue their Tchaikovsky cycle. They are joined by star trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger who plays Mieczyslaw Weinberg‘s Trumpet Concerto, which Shostakovich described as a symphony for trumpet and orchestra. PROGRAM Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4; Weinberg: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra
Nelsons conducts Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich
In May 2019, the principal conductor of the Gewandhausorchester, Andris Nelsons, presented Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in combination with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with outstanding violinist Baiba Skride as the soloist. With this choice of program, Andris Nelsons continued the Tchaikovsky cycle with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, which he had started as part of the concert series that surrounded his inauguration as Gewandhauskapellmeister in February 2018. PROGRAM Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5; Shostakovich: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Nelsons conducts Clara and Robert Schumann
Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto is the composer’s only surviving work with orchestra. She herself premiered the concerto at age sixteen with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Although contemporaries describe the young Clara as shy and reserved, this concert is full of self-confidence, power, and romantic feelings. On the occasion of the jubilee anniversary of Clara Schumann the concerto was recorded with the ensemble that first performed the work. The Gewandhausorchester Leipzig played on her 200th birthday under the baton of Kapellmeister Andris Nelsons. The pianist Lauma Skride took over the technically demanding piano part. The festive concert evening was framed by a world premiere of French composer Betsy Jolas (*1926) and the famous Spring Symphony by Robert Schumann.
Nelsons conducts Shostakovich
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death in 2025, the Leipzig Gewandhaus organized a unique festival featuring world-class artists and orchestras. The opening concert was the first highlight: the Gewandhausorchester, under the baton of its music director Andris Nelsons, performed Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the acclaimed pianist Daniil Trifonov as well Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4. PROGRAM Shostakovich: Festive Overture, Piano Concerto No 2, Symphony No 4
Nelsons conducts Shostakovich No 7
At the centre of the Shostakovich Festival 2025 in Leipzig was a performance of Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony, in which Andris Nelsons led the combined forces of the Gewandhausorchester and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Gewandhaus. Since 2018, both orchestras, at the helm of both of which Andris Nelsons stands, have continuously developed an ever-closer transatlantic partnership. Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony, known as the “Leningrad Symphony”, was composed during World War II and stands as a masterpiece of both artistic and historical significance. PROGRAM Shostakovich: Symphony No 7
Andris Nelsons and Lucas & Arthur Jussen
In this concert from the state-of-the-art Konzerthaus Dortmund, Lucas and Arthur Jussen join the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons for a rare performance of the brilliant concerto for two pianos and orchestra by the 14-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, himself Gewandhauskapellmeister from 1835 to 1847. To complete the programme, orchestra and conductor present first another rarity – the beautiful “Blumine” movement composed for the original version of Mahler’s
Symphony No. 1 – alongside Dvorák’s life-enhancing Symphony No. 8, a work in which the composer’s symphonic skill and melodic gifts mix to irresistible effect. PROGRAM Mahler: Blumine; Mendelssohn: Concerto for two Pianos; Dvorák: Symphony No. 8