The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta collaborate to present a month-long festival dedicated to exploring the German Romantic movement. The festival will feature performances of masterpieces by Brahms, Strauss, and Beethoven, complemented by free community lectures, chamber music performances, and additional offerings.
Official festival events will take place at the Woodruff Arts Center, with additional highlights from community partners.
ASO Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann will helm the ASO in a concert on April 4 and 5 at 8 p.m., in Atlanta Symphony Hall. The performance will showcase Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, highlighting Concertmaster David Coucheron and Principal Viola Zhenwei Shi as soloists. The program will also include two compositions by Brahms, a prominent figure of the German Romantic era.
Before each concert, there will be free chamber music performances in Symphony Hall at 6:45 p.m. that feature works by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn performed by 14 luminaries of the ASO.
“Even the most timeless and beautiful works of art are the products of their times, their battles and changes, their aspirations, and their personalities,” Oliver Gorf, executive director of Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta, said. “The German Romantic Festival is doing an outstanding job in portraying the period of German romanticism from so many important perspectives. Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta, the German Cultural Center for the Southeast, is honored to be adding a few notes to this masterpiece of a music festival.”
On April 11 and 13, Maestro Stutzmann will conduct the ASO and noted soprano Renée Fleming in an evening of works by Richard Strauss. The program includes the German romantic composer’s Four Last Songs, and excerpts from the operas Der Rosenkavalier and Capriccio.
In the festival’s final week, Portuguese virtuoso Maria João Pires will perform in her ASO debut on April 18 and 20 with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. The program also includes works by Mendelssohn and Schumann.
For more information, visit https://www.aso.org/.
Poster image from the German Romantic Music Festival. Photo courtesy the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
