Zurich Chamber Orchestra – Anniversary season with Daniel Hope and Emőke Baráth at the opening concert

Last night at the Tonhalle Maag, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and its musical director, Daniel Hope, opened the new season 2020/21. The musicians played during 90 minutes with no intermission. It was a grandiose concert, with an audience enjoying fully the repertoire. The musicians were rewarded in the end with a standing ovation.

The representatives of ZKO thanked the spectators for their support, who came last year at the concerts, also expressing their gratitude to the audience who was present during the opening concert last night, even under these strange circumstances. Daniel Hope said in a humorous tone that due to the pandemic ZKO could be the only chamber orchestra worldwide, able to open and close its season in 2020.

The 5th season with Daniel Hope as musical director, will be a special one as it is the orchestra’s 75th anniversary and the 100th birthday of its founder Edmond de Stoutz (1920-1997).

The Zurich Chamber Orchestra, initially known as House Orchestra Association, was founded in 1945, in the aftermath of World War II. The Swiss director from Zurich, Edmond de Stoutz was both its artistic leader and principal conductor, until 1996.

To pay an homage, the program from the ZKO’s first performance in 1945 was played once again, last night. A magnificent modern replica of a most memorable event from the past. ZKO opened the concert with several works of the Baroque Period, the Concerto grosso in D major op. 6 No. 5 by the German composer Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759). It continued with two unknown German composers and a few wonderful solo cantatas by Franz Tunder (1614-1677) and Julius Johann Weiland (1605-1663). Both are quite unknown pearls of the Baroque era. The guest of honour, the Hungarian soprano Emőke Baráth, accompanied the evening as a soloist and interpreted the solo cantatas. Her performance was both fabulous and breathtaking.

The second part of the program started with a work from the Romantic Period, belonging to the earlier years of the German composer Felix Mendelssohn, (1809-1847). The repertoire then took a most thrilling twist and jumped into the Modern Period with the Concertino op. 42 for violin by the Polish/Russian composer Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996). Weinberg´s music tragically sunk into some sort of public lapsus, that lingered and it was entirely unfair towards the Russian composer. He lived in the USSR and was quite active despite his dramatic personal life. He left behind 154 musical works (26 symphonies, 7 operas,7 string quartets and almost 30 sonatas). 

If you missed the opening concert there will be plenty of other opportunities until the end of the season. The next performance/ time you can indulge into qualitative and exquisite music is on the 19th of November. Find out more here about the exciting program and the colourful events of the Jubilee season.

Tickets:

ZKO Advice & Sales (Mon – Fri, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.), Seefeldstrasse 305, 8008 Zurich, Tel. 044 552 59 00, tickets@zko.ch. Press here.

Ticket office Tonhalle Maag, Zahnradstrasse 22, 8005 Zurich
Tonhalle Maag advance booking office on Paradeplatz, Credit Suisse counter, Paradeplatz 8, 8001 Zurich

To ensure that you can enjoy a carefree concert, all safety precautions for the audience and orchestra are being strictly implemented.

Authors: Veronique Gray & Orsolya Farkas Miron

• 75th year anniversary
• Daniel Hope
• Edmond de Stoutz
• Emoke Barath
• Franz Tunder
• Johann Weiland
• Jubilee
• Weinberg
• ZKO
• Zurich Chamber Orchestra