Staatskapelle Berlin End-of-Season Concert
On July 7, at the end of the 2021/22 season, the Staatskapelle Berlin presents a summer concert under the musical direction of the French conductor Alain Altinoglu and with Stephen Fitzpatrick (harp) and María Dueñas (violin) as soloists. The program includes works by Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The concert takes place as part of the Berlin Cultural Summer Festival - in front of a unique backdrop and in the open air in the Schönhausen Palace Gardens. For the first time, the orchestra will play at this historic location, the former residence of Queen Elisabeth Christine of Prussia. Admission is free and no tickets are required.
Music from Russia and France closes the concert season of the Staatskapelle. With his orchestral piece "Feu d'artifice" from 1908, the young Igor Stravinsky gave a first taste of his unique talent, two years later he had a spectacular success in Paris with his "Firebird". Just like Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, all of whom are now recognized as great innovators of European music, composed for the famous »Ballet russes« ensemble that played there. Debussy's »Danse Sacrée et Danse Profane« for harp and orchestra will be performed, with Stephen Fitzpatrick, one of the harpists of the Staatskapelle Berlin, as the soloist. The program is rounded off with Ravel's Maurice Ravel’s »Tzigane« for violin and orchestra, with María Dueñas as the soloist, and his Suite No. 2 from his ballet »Daphnis et Chloé«. Influences from East and West have come together in this music in an inspiring way - and all three composers, original and individual in their nature and work, have thus given European music culture essential impulses on its way to the modern age.
Alain Altinoglu has been chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony since the 2021/2022 season and has been music director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels since 2016. He regularly conducts renowned orchestras such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden and all the major Parisian orchestras. In 2021/22 he will lead the season opening concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlioz' »La damnation de Faust« at the Salzburg Festival and make his debuts with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and the Czech Philharmonic in Prague.
As a regular guest at the world's leading opera houses, Altinoglu performs at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Vienna State Opera and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as well as at the festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange and Aix-en-Provence. In addition to his work as a conductor, Altinoglu maintains a strong affinity for the song repertoire and performs regularly with the mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch. He has released sound recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Naïve, Pentatone and Cascavelle as well as numerous DVD productions. The Parisian studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he now teaches the conducting class.
The Spanish violinist María Dueñas has been in demand worldwide at least since she won the 2021 Menuhin Competition including the audience award. In 2021/2022 she will make her debut among others with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra as well as at the Grafenegg Festival, in the Vienna Konzerthaus and in New York's Zankel Hall. Another highlight is the premiere of a new violin concerto by Gabriela Ortíz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. María Dueñas is also a passionate composer and chamber musician. She has worked with Matthias Goerne, Itamar Golan and Robert Kulek at various chamber music festivals. Jordi Cervelló dedicated several solo works to her, which she premiered, most recently his piece »Milstein Caprice«. Born in Granada, María Dueñas began her musical education at the age of five and initially studied at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden before joining Boris Kuschnir’s class at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna in 2016 from the University of Art in Graz. María Dueñas plays instruments by Nicolò Gagliano from 17?4 and Guarneri del Gesù (»Muntz«) from 1736, on loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Nippon Music Foundation. Jonathan Molds is also lending her a Stradivarius from his private collection as the winner of the 2021 Menuhin Competition.
Raised in Wales, Stephen Fitzpatrick began playing the piano at the age of four and the harp at the age of seven. He studied both instruments at the Royal College of Music in London, later exclusively on the harp with Marisa Robles in London, Edward Witsenburg in The Hague and Sarah Bullen in Chicago. He was then engaged in various orchestras, in the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra and in the Stockholm Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In 2000 he was appointed principal harpist of the Staatskapelle Berlin by Daniel Barenboim and has also been a permanent member of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra since 2007. In addition, he regularly gives concerts in various orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Filarmonica della Scala and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. As a soloist and chamber musician, Stephen Fitzpatrick has toured Europe and the United States. He has performed as a soloist with the English Symphony Orchestra and Göteborgs Symfoniker. One of his particular passions is expanding the repertoire of new music. Several composers have written new works for him, some of which he has recorded for “Phono Suecia” in Stockholm. Stephen Fitzpatrick has been teaching at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Seville since 2004 and was a visiting professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin from 2008 to 2011. In 2010 Stephen Fitzpatrick was appointed professor for harp at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.