Theresia adds a new flag to its personal globe: on Saturday 17 June we will perform for the first time in Potsdam, Germany, as part of the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci. It promises to be an intense and rich experience: an extremely multifaceted festival and a new artistic collaboration of which we are particularly proud, namely with conductor and flautist Alexis Kossenko. Read on to find out more about Theresia in Potsdam!
The festival: musical friendship
Let’s take a closer look at this year’s festival theme, which started on the 9th of June and runs until the 25th of this month: recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger, artistic director of the festival, invites to explore the theme of friendship, namely “family ties, fraternal strife and elective affinities in the world of music”. As youth orchestras are often the birthplace of long-term friendships, it’s a theme that intrigues us: how does it translate into music? As the organisers explain, “the concerts of the 2023 Music Festival will bridge the gap from human friendship in the Old Testament, through medieval chant, the musician and composer circles around Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Sebastian Bach, to Franz Schubert’s poet friends and the fantasy circle invented by Robert Schumann for the piano.” There is so much richness and musical substance in this journey on the concept of friendship and music that it is truly a privilege to be part of it. If you are curious and would like to know more, check out the programme at the following link.
Flautist and conductor: Alexis Kossenko
Over the years we have forged beautiful friendships with the musicians we have worked with: after all, isn’t it always like that when there is a shared sense of purpose and understanding in doing the most beautiful thing in the world, which is making music? We are therefore delighted to have the opportunity of making new friends with a fantastic musician who will conduct Theresia Orchestra in Potsdam, Alexis Kossenko.
Alexis Kossenko is an experienced conductor and flautist in all historical forms of the instrument, from the ‘modern’ flute to the baroque and renaissance flutes, as well as the recorder. His intense career on the modern and baroque flute was quickly established after graduating with Alain Marion in Paris and with Marten Root in Amsterdam. In 1997, his acclaimed interpretation of the Quantz and Vivaldi concertos with the EUBO, conducted by Ton Koopman and Roy Goodman, marked the beginning of his solo career. Since then, he has been invited as a soloist by numerous European ensembles. With his own orchestra, Les Ambassadeurs, he rediscovered forgotten repertoire – music from the Golden Age of Dresden.
Our musical project: hidden gems
As always, our musical programme is anything but ordinary. In addition to the widely performed and much-loved ‘Paris’ Symphony by Mozart, the programme includes some truly rare gems. It goes without saying that the programme was conceived in line with the spirit of the festival. In particular, the venue where we will be performing was the inspiration for an authentic musical journey which is entitled ‘Rendezvous in Paris‘. Rheinsberg Palace (another dream place where we happen to play!) was Prince Henri of Prussia’s residence for 50 years. In 1784, at the invitation of the King of France, Heinrich (Henri) travelled to Paris. Based on the repertoire of the Parisian “Concerts Spirituels”, Alexis Kossenko and the Theresia Orchestra have created a concert evening that evokes the international flair of the musical metropolis, through forgotten works by contemporaries living in the French capital at the time: Jean-Baptiste Davaux, Giuseppe Cambini, François Devienne. Also on the stand is the overture to the oratorio ‘La destruction de Jéricho’ by Henri-Joseph Rigel.
Music and… bicycle!
That sounds new: a bicycle is not exactly the first thing that springs to mind when you think of a classical music concert: but it’s probably what you think of when you imagine a get-together with friends on a beautiful day in spring, isn’t it? Well, the organisers of the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci have managed to bring music and cycling together in a series of open-air concerts along a route to which the audience members are encouraged to cycle along. Theresia’s wind quintet and a trio of trumpets and timpani will be part of these special bicycle-concerts. Find more here.
To sum up: great music, with great people, in a great place. That’s Theresia! We are immensely looking forward to our concert. How about you?
SoundSouci Podcast
Für alle deutschsprachigen Leserinnen und Leser: Hört euch den SoundSouci-Podcast an, in dem der Geiger Guillermo Santonja di Fonzo, die Cellistin Ena Markert und Theresias Projektleiterin Susanna Bucher im Interview vorgestellt werden:
