Spotlight on George Benjamin: Into the Little Hill

September 2018

Musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are very happy to join in focusing the spotlight once again on outstanding composer and MCO friend George Benjamin. This concert is part of a Berliner Philharmoniker focus on the composer in the 2018/19 season. The programme begins with Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht for string sextet op. 4, and concludes with the minimalist chamber opera of George Benjamin, Into the Little Hill (libretto by Martin Crimp). Former MCO Artistic Partner Isabelle Faust leads Verklärte Nacht, which also features violinist Anne Katharina Schreiber, violists Antoine Tamestit and Danuscha Waskiewicz, and cellists Jean-Guihen Queyras and Christian Poltéra. Sir George Benjamin himself conducts his opera, Into the Little Hill.

George Benjamin chose the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to play the world premiere of his highly acclaimed opera, Written on Skin, after having conducted the MCO in a concert at the Lucerne Festival in 2009: “I was physically struck by the sound the orchestra makes; it has a sort of golden colour. It was one of the most important, meaningful musical collaborations I can remember in all my life.” The MCO will perform Written on Skin in Berlin and Hamburg in November 2018.

This performance has been generously sponsored by the Aventis Foundation.

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CONCERTS THIS TOUR

12 September 2018 Berlin

Wednesday 20:00 / Philharmonie Berlin, Chamber Music Hall

Works by: Arnold Schönberg, George Benjamin

With: Conductor Sir George Benjamin, Soprano Susanna Andersson, Contralto Krisztina Szabó, Violin Isabelle Faust, Violoncello Jean-Guihen Queyras et al.