With its Carnegie Hall debut, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano, wants to honor the centuries-old connections between the Hanseatic city and New York. It was a “very important guest appearance,” said chief conductor Nagano before the concert planned for Saturday on Friday (local time) in New York. The program was chosen to “pay great respect to the historical connections between the Port of Hamburg and the Port of New York”.
The concert program includes works by Johannes Brahms (Schicksalslied for choir and orchestra), Ludwig van Beethoven (Symphony 8) and the New York-based US composer Sean Shepherd. Shepherd’s work “On a Clear Day”, which is to be premiered, is based on a cycle of poems by the Hamburg-based poet Ulla Hahn.
Nagano is to conduct the concert, which will bring together cellist Jan Vogler, 90 musicians from the state orchestra and 100 young choir singers between the ages of 11 and 27 from Hamburg, Germany and New York. The state orchestra spoke in advance of “probably the most important event in the history of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, which takes place outside of its home town”. Carnegie Hall in the middle of Manhattan is one of the most important concert halls in the world.
