Ticket sales start
4 June 2025
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Carmina Burana – with 250 musicians
Carl Orff called his setting of medieval texts from the collection of a Bavarian monastery library ‘Songs from Beuren’. Even though it deals with fate, life and death, the work comes across as very down-to-earth, ranging from refined to coarse, but always very sensual. Music for everyone – symbolised by the collaboration between the Gürzenich Orchestra and amateur choirs from Cologne and Lucerne.
TH, 23*04*26
LUCERNE, 7:30 PM
In the 19th century, Cologne was one of the most important musical centers in Germany. The city orchestra was founded in 1827 and named after its performance venue, the Gürzenich concert hall. Under conductors such as Conradin Kreutzer, Ferdinand Hiller and Franz Wüllner, it performed important works by Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Pfitzner and Reger. After the Second World War, personalities such as Günter Wand, James Conlon and Markus Stenz ensured continuity. The Gürzenich Orchester Köln sees itself as a cultural ambassador for the cathedral city and emphasizes this with unusual concert formats such as the citizens’ orchestra, in which amateurs are invited to play along, performances in kindergartens and retirement homes as well as digital offerings. The Colombian Andrés Orozco-Estrada has been chief conductor since this season.
The name of the choir says it all: the Kölner Bürgerchor is in fact an ensemble made up of enthusiastic singers from the cathedral city − in the spirit of the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, which also emerged from a civic initiative in 1827. The choir made its first appearance in 2022 with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This was followed by Stravinsky’s "Symphony of Psalms" and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. Even though the citizens’ choir is largely made up of amateurs, it still performs to a professional standard. At the same time, the choir maintains close ties with the city, for example through "wish list concerts", where the audience determines the program, or through performances at the Christmas market. The choir is conducted by Cologne University Music Director Michael Ostrzyga.
A professionally run choir for children and young people with a focus on the sacred repertoire: this is the Luzerner Kantorei. Founded in 1992, it is made up of the Lucerne boys’ choir and the Lucerne girls’ choir. The young singers are introduced to the concert choir via the respective junior choir and, if suitable, prepared for solo performances. There is also the men’s ensemble, which is reserved for singers after their voice has changed. In this way, the Luzerner Kantorei has developed into one of the best Swiss youth choirs, with performances at the Lucerne Festival, the Bregenz Festival and on many opera stages in Switzerland and abroad. The choir’s artistic director since 2000 has been church musician Eberhard Rex.
Energy, elegance, esprit: these are the qualities with which Andrés Orozco-Estrada was introduced to the public as the new General Director of the City of Cologne. The conductor, who comes from Medellín in Colombia, has already sparked enthusiasm in very different places: he was artistic director in San Sebastián, Houston and with the hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt. He has particularly close ties to the city of Vienna, where he studied conducting for six years, celebrated his breakthrough in 2004 as a stand-in conductor with Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony and was appointed head of the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria in 2009. Orozco-Estrada now teaches at the University of Vienna. In 2014, he was awarded honorary Austrian citizenship for his outstanding musical achievements.
She is already a star in her native Latvia: soprano Annija Ādamsone, born in Riga in 1997. She recently received the country’s Grand Music Prize, in addition to a whole host of other awards, and the Latvian classical music station Radio 3 named her a resident artist. She has also attracted attention in Germany: In Stuttgart, where she graduated in 2023, she has already performed several times, including at the Staatstheater. Since 2024, she has been a permanent member of the ensemble at the Theater Trier, where she sang Zerbinetta (R. Strauss), Despina (Mozart) and Adele (J. Strauss). Andrés Orozco-Estrada engaged her for his "Carmina Burana" tour with guest appearances with the Gürzenich Orchestra. And Ādamsone also recently made headlines at home: as Olympia in "Hoffmanns Erzählungen" at the Latvian National Opera.
At the age of just 26, Michael Schade was engaged by Helmuth Rilling as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion for a European tour. In a way, this was the starting signal for the Canadian-born tenor’s great international career. Initially regarded as a Mozart specialist, with appearances from Salzburg and Vienna to New York, he has long since also worked his way up to dramatic roles by Strauss, Wagner and Britten. His recordings with Nikolaus Harnoncourt stand out and have received numerous awards. Schade has lived in Austria for some time now: he was appointed Kammersänger des Landes in 2007, has directed the International Baroque Festival at Melk Abbey since 2014 and has been Professor of Lied at the University of Vienna since 2019.
His family comes from Hungary, but he himself grew up in Stuttgart: Michael Nagy is currently one of the most sought-after and, above all, most versatile singers of his generation. His repertoire ranges from Mozart’s operas to Gounod, Puccini and modern music. In addition to appearances in Zimmermann’s "Soldaten", Ligeti’s "Grand Macabre" and Reimann’s "Medea", he has had regular engagements at the Bayreuth Festival since 2011. Nagy is also on the road as an oratorio and lieder singer. He won his first prizes in lieder before moving to the Komische Oper Berlin in 2004 and later to the Frankfurt Opera. His more recent performances also demonstrate his musical range: from Haydn’s "Schöpfung" to Bach’s St. John Passion and works by Arnold Schönberg ("Jakobsleiter", "Gurre-Lieder").
"Carmina Burana" is the title of a collection of vagrant songs from the High Middle Ages that came to light in 1803 when the Benediktbeuren monastery was dissolved. Their themes are close to everyday life and often deliberately directed against courtly aesthetics: Enjoyment of sensual pleasures, love and eroticism, play and satire, plus criticism of institutions. When Carl Orff became acquainted with these songs in 1934, he was immediately enthusiastic. With the help of an archivist friend, he compiled some of them into a scenic cantata in three parts. While Part I celebrates rural life, Part II takes place in the village tavern; Part III is dedicated to love. The whole is framed by invocations to Fortuna, the goddess of fate, whose image is emblazoned on the title page of the Benediktbeuren manuscript. Musically, Orff’s work continues to fascinate today with its stylistic diversity, which includes the tender love song as well as the hearty toast, the hymn to nature as well as satire and exaggeration. The "Carmina Burana" also has a lot to offer in terms of sound: The already large symphony orchestra is expanded to include two pianos, celesta and a number of percussion instruments.