Our new concert series presents the best winners of the Migros Culture Percentage Student Award and the Encouragement Award. Discover the Soloists of Tomorrow in short 30-minutes recitals that will start one hour before the following concerts: 28.11.2018, 27.1.2019, 22.3.2019 and 13.5.2019 in Lucerne, 25.10.2018, 27.11.2018, 26.1.2019, 20.3.2019, 9.4.2019 and 26.5.2019 in Zurich. Your season ticket or concert ticket entitles to a free admission for each of these concerts.

Our Soloists of Tomorrow

Rolf Liebermann wanted to be just known as "a musician". He was nonetheless one of the most versatile musical personalities of the second half of the 20th century. Composer, chansonnier, conductor and opera director, the multitalented Zurich-born artist also distinguished himself as an opera composer, a writer and the producer (along with Joseph Losey) of the famous filmed version of Mozart's "Don Giovanni". The Geneva public also has in mind his opera "La Forêt" that was premiered in 1987 at the Grand Théâtre. Forty years earlier, Liebermann had made his breakthrough as a composer with "Furioso". This orchestral piece was first performed in Darmstadt in 1947 and has since remained one of Liebermann's most played compositions. The work is built on two dodecaphonic series that distance themselves from a strict 12-tone system to fit in with a very personal style closely acquainted with the tonal system. The structure of "Furioso" is modelled on the Italian three-part overture. The opening section, a furiously fast Allegro vivace, is characterised by an obstinate four-note motif and syncopated chords. The middle part then develops a beautiful theme played by the flute and the English horn. The Finale combines the thematic elements of the first two sections. Extensive use of the piano and percussion instruments in this spectacular work recalls the Big Band composer that Liebermann used to be in his younger days.

Three weeks after the first performance of Mozart's opera "La Clemenza di Tito" at the Estates Theatre in Prague on 6 September 1791, "The Magic Flute" was premiered at Schikaneder's Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. The "Requiem" commissioned by Count Walsegg was then still waiting to be finished. Despite the urgency of that task and his state of exhaustion, Mozart somehow found the energy and motivation to compose his very last orchestral work: the Clarinet Concerto in A Major, which he had initially thought of writing for the basset horn. Mozart wrote the concerto for his Masonic friend and lodge brother, Anton Stadler, who was principal clarinettist of the Vienna Court Orchestra. Stadler significantly contributed to the development of his instrument at the end of the 18th century, which accounts for Mozart giving the clarinet a prominent role in many of his later works. In the quintet and the concerto dedicated to Stadler - both written of A major - the composer fully exploited the instrument's registers and timbre, its fullness and its melodic flexibility. Throughout his final concertante work, Mozart transcended the melodic line so as to blend the art of chamber music with a perfect symphonic mastery. Beyond the instrumental masterpiece – which was undoubtedly intended for a clarinet made by Stadler himself – this concerto can certainly be perceived as a hymn of praise for universal brotherhood.

After a first (incomplete) performance of his First Symphony in Kassel in 1885, Mahler completed the work three years later in Leipzig and premiered it on 20 November 1889 in Budapest. However, it was not until 16 March 1896 that the final version of the Symphony in D major was heard in Berlin. Mahler started drafting his "Titan" Symphony while working on the vocal cycle "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen". A connection was immediately established between the songs and the symphony, the latter echoing the vocal work through extensive quotations. Mahler was at that time involved in a love affair with the wife of composer Carl Maria von Weber's grandson. The First Symphony's title has no relation as such with the composer's personal situation, but it does recall a popular novel written by German romantic writer Jean Paul, in which the hero relies on his exceptional inner force to face an adversary world. Mahler denied, however, having been directly inspired by this novel. In its first version, the symphony was in two parts and comprised five movements; an Andante in C major entitled “Bluminekapitel” was placed between the first two movements as they stand in the final version. The four movements that Mahler finally kept follow a traditional classical pattern: an Allegro (preceded by a slow introduction), a Scherzo, then a funeral march for the slow movement and a dramatic Finale. The latter is almost as long as the other three movements put together.

Rolf Liebermann wanted to be just known as "a musician". He was nonetheless one of the most versatile musical personalities of the second half of the 20th century. Composer, chansonnier, conductor and opera director, the multitalented Zurich-born artist also distinguished himself as an opera composer, a writer and the producer (along with Joseph Losey) of the famous filmed version of Mozart's "Don Giovanni". The Geneva public also has in mind his opera "La Forêt" that was premiered in 1987 at the Grand Théâtre. Forty years earlier, Liebermann had made his breakthrough as a composer with "Furioso". This orchestral piece was first performed in Darmstadt in 1947 and has since remained one of Liebermann's most played compositions. The work is built on two dodecaphonic series that distance themselves from a strict 12-tone system to fit in with a very personal style closely acquainted with the tonal system. The structure of "Furioso" is modelled on the Italian three-part overture. The opening section, a furiously fast Allegro vivace, is characterised by an obstinate four-note motif and syncopated chords. The middle part then develops a beautiful theme played by the flute and the English horn. The Finale combines the thematic elements of the first two sections. Extensive use of the piano and percussion instruments in this spectacular work recalls the Big Band composer that Liebermann used to be in his younger days.

Three weeks after the first performance of Mozart's opera "La Clemenza di Tito" at the Estates Theatre in Prague on 6 September 1791, "The Magic Flute" was premiered at Schikaneder's Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. The "Requiem" commissioned by Count Walsegg was then still waiting to be finished. Despite the urgency of that task and his state of exhaustion, Mozart somehow found the energy and motivation to compose his very last orchestral work: the Clarinet Concerto in A Major, which he had initially thought of writing for the basset horn. Mozart wrote the concerto for his Masonic friend and lodge brother, Anton Stadler, who was principal clarinettist of the Vienna Court Orchestra. Stadler significantly contributed to the development of his instrument at the end of the 18th century, which accounts for Mozart giving the clarinet a prominent role in many of his later works. In the quintet and the concerto dedicated to Stadler - both written of A major - the composer fully exploited the instrument's registers and timbre, its fullness and its melodic flexibility. Throughout his final concertante work, Mozart transcended the melodic line so as to blend the art of chamber music with a perfect symphonic mastery. Beyond the instrumental masterpiece – which was undoubtedly intended for a clarinet made by Stadler himself – this concerto can certainly be perceived as a hymn of praise for universal brotherhood.

After a first (incomplete) performance of his First Symphony in Kassel in 1885, Mahler completed the work three years later in Leipzig and premiered it on 20 November 1889 in Budapest. However, it was not until 16 March 1896 that the final version of the Symphony in D major was heard in Berlin. Mahler started drafting his "Titan" Symphony while working on the vocal cycle "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen". A connection was immediately established between the songs and the symphony, the latter echoing the vocal work through extensive quotations. Mahler was at that time involved in a love affair with the wife of composer Carl Maria von Weber's grandson. The First Symphony's title has no relation as such with the composer's personal situation, but it does recall a popular novel written by German romantic writer Jean Paul, in which the hero relies on his exceptional inner force to face an adversary world. Mahler denied, however, having been directly inspired by this novel. In its first version, the symphony was in two parts and comprised five movements; an Andante in C major entitled “Bluminekapitel” was placed between the first two movements as they stand in the final version. The four movements that Mahler finally kept follow a traditional classical pattern: an Allegro (preceded by a slow introduction), a Scherzo, then a funeral march for the slow movement and a dramatic Finale. The latter is almost as long as the other three movements put together.