Conductor Simone Young | Picture: Sandra Steh

Concert information


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When Simone Young conducts Bruckner, she prefers to perform the original versions of his symphonies: “Perhaps they are not as perfect as the later versions,” she explains. “But they have a modernity that the later ones lack.” In this concert, she presents the original version of the Second Symphony from 1872, and combines it with Wolfgang Rihm’s one-act opera Das Gehege. This dark and enigmatic piece depicts a woman who, on the eve of German reunification, frees an eagle from captivity, tries to seduce it, and ultimately kills it.


Artists

Berliner Philharmoniker
Simone Young conductor
Vida Miknevičiūtė soprano


Programme

Wolfgang Rihm
Das Gehege. A nocturnal scene for soprano and orchestra

Vida Miknevičiūtė soprano

Interval

Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 2 in C minor (1st version from 1872)



Main Auditorium

26 to 82 €

Introduction
19:15

Series C: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker


Main Auditorium

26 to 82 €

Introduction
18:15

Series L: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker


Main Auditorium

26 to 82 €

Introduction
18:15

Series H: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

“Music is always human”
Composer in Residence Wolfgang Rihm in conversation

Video: Tobias Möller / Adam Janisch

Biographies

Simone Young

Is there something in the Australian mentality that helped her to go her own way? Yes, says Simone Young: “We tackle everything. We aren’t discouraged if someone says: that’s impossible, or you can’t do that. Perhaps it’s because of the beautiful, broad horizons. When you grow up in this country, you have a spirituality that is strongly connected to the land and to nature.” Simone Young, who turned to orchestra conducting after early piano and flute lessons, was already regarded as the world’s most successful woman conductor in the mid-1990s. 

From 2005 to 2015 she was artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera and general music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra; since 2022 she has been chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She previously led Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne. Simone Young is a regular guest at opera houses such as the Royal Opera House in London, the State Operas in Vienna, Berlin and Munich as well as New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She also conducts many leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, whom she conducted for the first time in 2005, when she stepped in as a substitute. Simone Young has made a name for herself as a Wagner and Strauss interpreter, although she conducts a wide musical spectrum of premieres and repertoire performances with works ranging from Mozart, Verdi and Puccini to Hindemith, Britten and Henze.


Vida Miknevičiūtė

Emotional furore with a highly cultivated sound: Vida Miknevičiūtė thrills international audiences on the big stages with her dramatic soprano. The Lithuanian-born singer, who studied singing at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Kaunas and in Leipzig, has made numerous successful debuts in recent years – including at the 2021 Salzburg Festival, where she appeared as Chrysothemis in Strauss’ Elektra. A short time later, the winner of numerous singing competitions made her debut as Salome at the Vienna State Opera. She has also appeared in the same role at the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Bavarian State Opera, Melbourne Opera and the Salzburg Festival.

The singer also caused a sensation when she made her role debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in the 2022/23 season as “gleißend helle Sieglinde” (RBB Kultur) in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Ring production and was celebrated by the audience for several minutes. Vida Miknevičiūtė began her career at the Zurich Opera Studio and the Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera, and from 2011 to 2020 the soprano was a member of the ensemble at the Mainz State Theatre. She also made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the role of Sieglinde in the 2023 New Year’s Eve concert conducted by Kirill Petrenko.