Migros-Culture-Percentage-Classics 180°

Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Luxembourg, Munich: The Utopia Orchestra has already performed in all of these places − even though it has only been in existence since 2022. Founded by conductor Teodor Currentzis, it sees itself as a project orchestra whose declared aim is to realize a shared artistic vision. Hence its independence from traditional institutions, hence its international make-up with musicians from several dozen countries. For certain projects, such as the Mass in C minor and the St. John Passion at the Salzburg Festival, the orchestra is expanded to include a choir. In this form, it presented Rameau’s "Castor et Pollux" at the Opéra Garnier in Paris in 2025 under director Peter Sellars. There are plans to perform all of Mahler’s symphonies in the future.

Athens-born Teodor Currentzis has set an example of how to approach the centers of classical music from the periphery: from his first stop, Novosibirsk in Siberia, he moved to Perm in the Urals in 2011 and then to the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart in 2018. During this time, he has taken both the professional world and the public by storm: for his Mozart cycle ("Figaro", "Così fan tutte", "Don Giovanni"), he received the Echo-Klassik award, among others, and in 2016 he was named Conductor of the Year by "Opernwelt". In order to realize his musical ideas, he founded the MusicaAeterna Ensemble in 2004; in 2022, another ensemble was added with the Utopia Orchestra. It is only logical that Currentzis recently launched his own record label.

She was 12 when she was invited by Mariss Jansons to play with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, Vilde Frang has conquered audiences around the world at breakneck speed: appearances at the major festivals in Salzburg, Lucerne, Rheingau and Prague, an exclusive contract with Warner Classics, crowned by music prizes such as the Diapason d’Or and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award. Frag’s playing captivates with an absolutely authentic naturalness. Which is why she can also afford to take artistic paths away from the usual: Her repertoire includes solo concertos by Nielsen, Korngold, Britten, Bartók and Stravinsky. On the occasion of her last guest performance as part of the Migros Culture Percentage Classics, Frang said: "We have so much exciting music, both in front of us and behind us, and the responsibility to cultivate and pass on this music."

Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto is a requiem in two respects. Composed in 1935 in memory of Alma Mahler’s daughter Manon Gropius, who died young, it combines past and present, traditional music with a twelve-tone row in a fascinating way. While the first part sketches the personality of the young woman, the second deals with death and farewell. The Bach chorale "Es ist genug" serves as the end point of the development. Berg himself was not to experience the triumph of his violin concerto in person: He died in December 1935, four months before the premiere.

For Gustav Mahler, writing a symphony meant building a world with all the means at his disposal. This concept of world creation already characterizes his symphonic debut, composed in 1888 but reworked several times. The young artist creates an impressively visually intense panorama here, ranging from undifferentiated sounds of nature to naïve dances and songs to a parody of a funeral procession. And the triumphant conclusion fits the work’s nickname (later erased): "Titan". Initially misjudged and rejected, the First is now one of Mahler’s most popular symphonies.