Summer Concert of the University Orchestra Duisburg-Essen - at the Erlöser Church

Narrated music: landscape, voice, monument

With works by Sibelius, Weber, and Borodin, the University Orchestra Duisburg-Essen, under the baton of Karajan Conducting Prize winner Oliver Leo Schmidt, embarks on a journey through three forms of musical storytelling in its traditional summer concert.

In "En Saga," Jean Sibelius opens a world of Nordic saga that offers atmosphere more than plot, creating a Finnish landscape that tells its own soul. "It is the expression of a certain state of mind," the then-young composer said. En Saga ranks among Sibelius's most frequently performed works.

In Carl Maria von Weber's brief "Concertino" featuring young soloist Moritz Siegel (17) from the renowned talent academy "folkwang junior," the clarinet becomes the protagonist of theatrical storytelling like in a romantic fairy tale: operatic-dramatic, lyrically soaring, and finally youthfully spirited and brilliant.

After the intermission, the perspective expands into the monumental: Alexander Borodin's second symphony unfolds like an epic panorama, where the full orchestra now tells the story - powerfully, archaically, with suffering and movement, featuring angular heroic and singing themes. These are scenes from a grand historical novel that concludes with celebration and uninhibited dance.

Program
Jean Sibelius | "En Saga" Symphonic Poem op. 9
Carl Maria von Weber | "Concertino" for Clarinet and Orchestra in E-flat Major op. 26
Alexander P. Borodin | Symphony No. 2 in B Minor

University Orchestra Duisburg-Essen
Founded six decades ago as a small ensemble of the Medical Faculty, the University Orchestra Duisburg-Essen today ranks among the top orchestras of German universities. With roughly 90 members, the ensemble continually surprises its audiences with extraordinary programs that combine well-known and lesser-known works from the concert repertoire.