This February the orchestra along with their Music Director François-Xavier Roth and acclaimed French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, present their New Academy Concerts series, inspired by Beethoven’s academy concerts once staged in Vienna.
Weaving Beethoven’s music with contemporary and modern classics from Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Helmut Lachenmann and world premieres by Francesco Filidei and Isabel Mundry which is commissioned by the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Kunststiftung NRW, the programme combines and celebrates Beethoven, bringing his optimistic visionary spirit to life.
Starting off at the Prinzregententheater in Munich on 16 February, the orchestra travel to Lyon for a performance on 17 February. Further concerts can be seen at the Royal Festival Hall on 21 February which coincides with Aimard’s ongoing three-year residency at Southbank Centre. The final concert takes place in Hamburg’s impressive Elbphilharmonie on 24 February.
The tour is synonymous with Aimard’s 2019/20 programme focus, ‘Beethoven and the Avant-Garde’ which is a unique and personal take on Beethoven’s legacy developed in response to the composer’s 250th anniversary year. Pierre-Laurent Aimard presents this project in concerts as part of the Berliner Festspiele at Philharmonie Berlin, Philharmonie de Paris, Tokyo Opera City, Southbank Centre and on tour in the US.
