Klaus Mäkelä Johann Sebastian Bach
Thomas Adès
Johannes Brahms

Bach and Brahms

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Bach and Brahms

Klaus Mäkelä conducts Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 with his famous piece Air, Thomas Adès’ orchestral work Asyla, and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, in which he bases his last symphony movement on Bach’s music.

During his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was legendary as an organist and as a cantor in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. From 1729, he also led the city’s Collegium Musicum, an ensemble that played every Friday at Café Zimmermann, Leipzig’s most famous coffee house.

It might have been at such a Friday concert that Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 was played for the first time. Such suites, with small pieces based on various dance forms, were incredibly popular at the time. Bach wrote four orchestral suites, and the famous Air is one of the five movements in the third suite.

The British composer Thomas Adès (b. 1971) got his breakthrough during the 1990s, and has since been one of the most performed and recognized orchestral composers of our time. The orchestral work Asyla was premiered in 1997 and is one of his most performed works.

Asyla is the plural of asylum. The word means sanctuary or safe place, and psychiatric hospitals were called asylums for a long time. The composer plays with the double meaning in this diverse and nuanced work with four movements. The third movement, Ecstasio, describes a rave party in 1990s London.

In 1880, Johann Brahms (1833-1897) discussed Johann Sebastian Bach’s music with some friends. He sat down by the piano and played a chaconne by Bach. While playing, he asked them: “How would you like to one day listen to a symphony movement written over this theme?”

Bach was one of Brahm’s great idols, and the theme is from his Cantata No. 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich. When Brahms began the work on his Symphony No. 4 in 1884, he took up the theme again and used it as the foundation for his last and perhaps most impressive symphonic movement.

What is played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach Orchestral Suite No. 3
  • Thomas Adès Asyla
  • Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 4

Duration

Performers

Tickets

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Price groups Price
Adult 185 - 610 NOK
Senior 195 - 490 NOK
Student 185 - 305 NOK
Child 150 NOK

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Klaus Mäkelä Johann Sebastian Bach
Thomas Adès
Johannes Brahms

Oslo Concert Hall Select date: