Konzert zur Saisoneröffnung

The Konzerthaus Orchestra and Joana Mallwitz whirl through waltzes from Richard Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier,” his famous “comedy for music.”

Maurice Ravel’s “La Valse” from 1920, on the other hand, is also permeated by eerie undertones, as it is both a dance of death and an ironic homage to the 19th century.

The chief conductor and her orchestra continue the dance theme with movements from Prokofiev’s richly orchestrated, rhythmically complex ballet “Romeo and Juliet.” In between, the new resident composer Unsuk Chin introduces herself with a work: “Subito con forza” (“suddenly, with force”; 2020) is full of allusions to Beethoven’s music and thus ties in with the complete symphonic cycle that Joana Mallwitz will conduct around the 200th anniversary of his death in 2027.

Unsuk Chin calls her work a “personal homage to arguably the first modernist composer in music history.”

The concert will be broadcast live at the Friedrichshain Open-Air Cinema.