07:00 pm
Martin Rajna Conductor
Anneleen Lenaerts Harp
Konrád Varga Composer
Anne Kussmaul Introduction
RICHARD WAGNER · „Siegfried Idyll", WWV 103 (1870)
REINHOLD GLIÈRE · Harp Concerto in E♭ major, op. 74 (1938)
KONRÁD VARGA · New Composition (2026, German Premiere)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN · Symphony No. 4, B♭ major, op. 60 (1806)
Venerable musical traditions can be passed on: the Young Euro Classic audience already had the privilege of witnessing this process in 2022 and 2024, when the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic appeared at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. The young international musicians receive intense orchestral training from the professionals of the most renowned Austrian orchestra alongside the Salzburg Festival – with a focus on the Philharmonic’s core repertoire. This also informs this year’s concert programme, which pays homage to the central composer of the First Viennese School, Ludwig van Beethoven, performing his Fourth Symphony in B-flat minor. This contrasts with Wagner’s Siegfried-Idyll, a work he presented to his wife Cosima as a Christmas gift in 1870, overjoyed at the birth of their son Siegfried. Anneleen Lenaerts, principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic, is Viennese by professional choice – she will perform the late romantic Harp Concerto by the Russian Reinhold Glière. Last but not least, the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy adds a modern dash of colour with a work by Konrád Varga, a composer only 20 years old.
Introduction and Q&A at 6:00 PM with Anne Kussmaul in the Werner-Otto Saal. Entry with a concert ticket.
Language: German.
For more than fifteen years, the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic has fostered highly talented young orchestral players from all over the world. The orchestra’s working period takes place in parallel with the Salzburg Festival. One important goal of the Summer Academy is to give young musicians insights into the traditions of orchestral playing maintained specifically by the Vienna Philharmonic. Therefore, the repertoire has a strong focus on music composed in Vienna, especially works of the First Viennese School. All instrumental sections are coached exclusively by members of the Vienna Philharmonic. The Summer Academy’s mission also encompasses encouragement and tuition for musicians practicing specific Viennese instruments, i.e. the Viennese oboe, horn and timpani. The Summer Academy is funded by the Angelika Prokopp Private Foundation, founded in 1999, whose mission is to support the arts and culture, in memory of the long-time director of the “Prokopp Lottery” which is very popular in Austria. The orchestra performed at Young Euro Classic in 2022 and 2024.
Martin Rajna has emerged as one of the outstanding young Hungarian conductors in recent years. Since 2023, he has been chief conductor of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest; in the fall of 2026, the 30-year-old also takes up the baton as music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic. During the 2025/26 season, Rajna makes several major European debuts, bringing the Philharmonie Luxembourg to Bozar in Brussels and conducting a double production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Poulenc’s La voix humaine at the Maggio Musicale in Florence. At the Hungarian State Opera, he conducts a new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin and the operas Turandot, La Bohème and Aida. Rajna is a graduate of the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest and continued his studies at the Music Academy Franz Liszt in Weimar. In 2021, he was selected to participate in the mentoring programme of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, where he worked not only with Eötvös himself, but also with composers such as György Kurtág and Magnus Lindberg.
A native of Belgium, Anneleen Lenaerts has been the principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic since 2010, where she succeeded Xavier de Maistre at the age of only 23. In addition to her orchestral duties, she is a sought-after soloist and chamber musician; in this season, she has been invited to the Festival Ravel in France, the Mozartfest in Würzburg, the Grafenegg Festival and the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen. Anneleen Lenaerts has collaborated with partners including the mandolinist Avi Avital, cellist Julia Hagen and soprano Christiane Karg. Her programmes range from arrangements of classical lied literature to original combinations with clarinet, mandolin or voice. Among her discography, the album Vienna Stories of 2021 and Nino Rota. Works for Harp (2019) stand out, the latter recorded with the Brussels Philharmonic and Emmanuel Pahud. She also recorded a CD with the clarinettist Dionysis Grammenos featuring works by Schubert and Schumann arranged for clarinet and harp.
Aged only 20, Konrád Varga is pursuing studies both as a composer and a cellist. He has won several first prizes at the Austrian youth music competition Prima la musica – both as a soloist and in the chamber music category. Since 2024, he has studied cello performance at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (mdw). Apart from his solo and chamber music activities, he is a regular substitute at the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic. At the same time as attending 7th grade at the Vienna High School for Music, Konrád Varga also completed the preparatory course for composition students at the mdw. In 2018, his Ballade in Gelb for solo cello premiered in the USA. Another composition for solo cello, ad agio? (2020), was inspired by Riccardo Muti and dedicated to him. Konrád Varga is composing a new orchestral work for the summer tour of the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic.
Anne Kussmaul is a music educator, presenter and coach focusing on concert formats and education projects in the field of music. She began her career as an orchestra musician, playing violin in the Dortmund Philharmonic from 2004 to 2015. After obtaining a master’s degree in music education and music management alongside her professional career as a musician, she became a freelancer, working for various cultural institutions and festivals. From 2013 to 2020 she taught at the NRW Orchestra Centre, where she introduced and taught the subject of music education; she continues to teach at various music academies. In 2018, she joined the education team of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, where she is responsible for concepts and planning. She also gives pre-concert talks regularly at the Elbphilharmonie.