Orchestra: hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Conductor: Alain Altinoglu
Soloist: Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Choir: Frauenstimmen des MDR-Rundfunkchores
Soprano: Tamara Banješević
Mezzo-soprano: Jelena Kordić
Narrator: Udo Wachtveitl
Programme:
- Johannes Brahms – Vier Gesänge for women’s choir, horns and harp, Op. 17
- Unsuk Chin – Cello Concerto
- Felix Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61 (excerpts)
Venue: Alte Oper Frankfurt
Date: 20 February 2026
Time: 19:00 (CET)
Streaming: Free live transmission on YouTube
A programme shaped around what the orchestra describes as “beauty that borders on the unreal” brings together Romantic lyricism and contemporary sonic imagination.
The evening opens with Brahms’s Vier Gesänge, written for women’s voices with the distinctive colouring of horns and harp. The Frauenstimmen des MDR-Rundfunkchores join the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in music of intimacy and luminous warmth.
At the centre stands Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto, performed by Alisa Weilerstein. Chin has often spoken of pushing performers to their technical and expressive limits, and this concerto places the soloist in extreme registers and refined textures. Weilerstein, known for her intellectual clarity and physical commitment on stage, navigates a sound world that oscillates between fragility and intensity.
The programme concludes with excerpts from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, including the celebrated incidental music that transforms Shakespeare’s enchanted forest into orchestral lightness and delicacy. Under Alain Altinoglu, the concert moves from choral reflection to contemporary exploration and finally to Mendelssohn’s shimmering theatrical magic.
You can watch the free live transmission on YouTube.
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