London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle ended his tenure as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in the summer of 2018: parallel to his last season in Berlin, he had already taken up the post of music director of the London Symphony Orchestra the previous September. As Rattle himself said, »I’m leaving one world-class orchestra and taking over another with a completely different character.« The British »dream team« is coming to Hamburg with a stirring programme: the first part of the concert consists of Alban Berg’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which he wrote in remembrance of Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler-Werfel and Walter Gropius, who died of polio at the age of 18. The solo part in the Berg is played by Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili, whom the Financial Times praised for her »deep sensitivity«. After the interval we hear Beethoven’s sole oratorio, »Christus am Ölberge«.