Passion. Bamberg Symphony’s 2017/2018 concert season

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The theme of the Bamberg Symphony’s 2017/2018 concert season is Passion. At a press conference today, Chief Executive Marcus Rudolf Axt and Chief Conductor Jakub Hrůša presented the forthcoming season’s programme: featuring works from four centuries, it offers the opportunity to discover anew or afresh composers who were passionate in transmuting their ideas into music – from Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion to the world premiere of a work by Jörg Widmann, Das heiße Herz.

As well as 54 concerts in Bamberg, schedule highlights include several joint tours: in November 2017, Jakub Hrůša leads the Orchestra on a concert tour of Spain, followed in June 2018 by the Orchestra’s fifteenth trip to Japan. The Orchestra will also perform at leading festivals including Bonn’s Beethovenfest, and will make its debut in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.

Alongside Chief Conductor Jakub Hrůša, and Honorary Conductors Herbert Blomstedt and Christoph Eschenbach, baritone Christian Gerhaher will also leave his mark on the season: appearing as Portrait Artist he will take the lead role in concert performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, with other performances including the world premiere of the orchestral version of Jörg Widmann’s song-cycle Das heiße Herz.

The Bamberg Symphony continues its "encore!" project for what will be its fourth season. Thomas Daniel Schlee, Jörg Widmann and Walter Zimmermann have been commissioned to write encores, with which the Bamberg Symphony aims to place contemporary works in an unusual context: as short, entertaining pieces to round off a concert. Adding to its 15 existing encores, the Orchestra is widening the sphere of new music yet further, and helping audiences to sample contemporary composition.

Guest conductors and soloists collaborating with the Bamberg Symphony during the coming season, of whom several will be making their Bamberg debut, include Jiří Bělohlávek, Andrey Boreyko, Karina Canellakis, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Piotr Anderszewski, Renaud Capuçon, Viktoria Mullova, Sol Gabetta, Vesselina Kasarova and Olga Peretyatko.