10.05. Robyn Orlin, – Camille – & Phuphuma Love Minus
“alarm clocks are replaced by floods and we awake with our unwashed eyes in our hands…” A piece about water without water, which explores, through the prism of music, how water shapes the cycle of life, and what happens when that balance is disrupted. It is a unique stage production bringing together -Camille- and the male choir Phuphuma Love Minus under the direction of South African director Robyn Orlin. The agile French vocalist and the singer-dancers from Johannesburg blend song and movement to deliver a show that is both explosive and deeply relevant.
11.05. Four Seasons with Janine Jansen
«In every note, there is a story waiting to be told.» So said Antonio Vivaldi, whose iconic Four Seasons emulates the sounds of Mother Nature and follows the cycle of the seasons, from renewal to decline and back again. A frequent guest at the Philharmonie, Janine Jansen topped international charts in 2004 with a fresh and imaginative recording of the work. This Baroque programme gives performers license to shine, and will also feature Richard Dubugnon’s recent concerto grosso, for its first performance in Luxembourg. So, close your eyes and let Janine Jansen spirit you away from the Grand Auditorium, into the big wide world of natural beauty and wonder.
Janine Jansen © Marco Borgrevve
17.05. Anoushka Shankar presents «Chapters»
This is the start of a new chapter for Anoushka Shankar, and a return to the origins of her life and her music. Alongside Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra, no strangers to crossover, she revisits the many twists and turns of a career shaped by movement between tradition and emancipation, tracing how her music has evolved over time. It marks the end of her album trilogy «Chapters» and is the last concert of our Echoes of India series.
20.05. Pour la fin du temps
Less is more. These pieces certainly abide by this motto. Alban Berg’s Vier Stücke are about one minute each, Elliott Carter’s Epigrams is a series of very short movements, and Maurice Ravel’s sonata is, in the composer’s own words, «stripped down to the bare essentials». Each work approaches time differently, compressing it into its most concentrated form. The pièce de résistance will be Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Imprisoned in a Nazi POW camp alongside other musicians, the composer made use of the conditions to write this ethereal piece, inspired by the Bible’s Book of Revelation, where the idea of time itself begins to dissolve.
Isabelle Faust © Felix Broede
22.05. Poems on Life, Love, Loss
Have you ever been so moved by a book that the words echo within you long after you’ve closed it? That’s probably how Gustav Mahler felt when he discovered the works of Friedrich Rückert, the «favourite poet» of 19th-century composers. So he decided to make the pleasure last and set five of them to music, capturing moments of life, love and loss in sound. A few decades earlier, Carl Maria von Weber was just as inspired by a fairytale-like story: Oberon, King of the Elves. As for Jean Sibelius, nothing could ever match in his eyes the poetry of his native Finland, to which he devoted his entire life as a composer. Come to the Philharmonie on 22.05. to meet these three sensitive and literary souls with the Luxembourg Philharmonic and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
Five evenings to take a breath, step away from the daily grind and reflect on the circle of life. Find your next concert at philharmonie.lu or on the Phil30 app.