We are continuing the chamber concerts in autumn in our new home venue - the Humboldt Hall - and the audience can expect two absolute concert highlights. On Saturday, 9 November 2024, top cellists from NRW will come together with the 8CELLI to perform a top-class programme: in addition to the ‘Estaciones Porteñas’ (Four Seasons) by Astor Piazzolla and wonderful arrangements of romantic works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, there will be a work by Thomas Blomenkamp, the ‘Fandango’.
he piece was premiered in 2016 in the Robert Schumann Hall in Düsseldorf and inspires with the tremendous quality of this important contemporary composer. In keeping with the special date of the concert - 9 November - the ‘Suite en quatre mouvements’ by Tobias Kassung will also be performed. It was premiered at the Altes Kurhaus Aachen in 2022 and was commissioned by the Landesmusikrat NRW. In four movements, the suite is musically dedicated to the highly topical subject of populism and the dangers to our democracy. With great seriousness, but also with a great deal of humour and confidence, the result is wonderful, emotionally gripping music.
In the chamber concert on Saturday, 14 December 2024, the Arisva Quartet of the Kölner Klassik Ensemble will perform a very special work for Cologne and international chamber music: after more than 40 years, the string quartet op. 68 by the outstanding Cologne composer Heinz Pauels will be heard. This work will be preceded by the wonderful and all too rarely performed second string quartet by Alexander Borodin.
After the opening concert with UWAGA! in the new Humboldt Hall in February and the subsequent concert by the Astor Trio, we are delighted with the great success of our series at the new venue. After the opening concert, the Kölnische Rundschau headlined: ‘New era for chamber music in a full hall’. We are delighted with this new venue for our chamber concerts in Cologne and hope that we can find an acoustically excellent home here for many years to come. We would like to thank the Humbldt-Gymnasium and the City of Cologne's cultural centre management for making this possible.
In order for the chamber concerts to continue in the future, we need you above all - dear audience: continue to remain loyal to us, experience the fantastic concerts in the new Humboldt-Hall and support us especially with a sponsoring membership in our non-profit supporting association.
Thank you very much!
Your Tobias Kassung
(Artistic Director)
