07:00 pm
Michael Sanderling Conductor
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH · Symphony No. 7 in C-major Op. 60 “Leningrad” (1941)
An international youth orchestra such as the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, whose members are selected according to the highest standards, can afford to put only one work on its programme – and Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, the “Leningrad”, is a work that is as massive as it is demanding. The circumstances of its writing were decisive for its character: Shostakovich began composing it in 1941 in Leningrad, then besieged by German troops, dedicating it to “our fight against fascism” and “Leningrad, my hometown”. Still, in its mixture of the will to survive, grief and grotesque, the Seventh eschews any unambiguous interpretation. Michael Sanderling, in turn, has everything one could wish for to ensure an authentic interpretation of Shostakovich’s works. After all, his father, the conductor Kurt Sanderling, was a close friend of the composer during Soviet times; his son recorded all 15 Shostakovich Symphonies with the Dresden Philharmonic during his tenure as its chief conductor. An unusual evening, likely to reverberate for a long time!
Since its founding in 1987 by Leonard Bernstein, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra has enjoyed an outstanding reputation. From among 1,500 applicants all over the world, about 110 young musicians are selected every year to participate in the seven-week Orchestra Academy, the centrepiece of the pedagogical work of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where they work on great orchestral literature with famous conductors. The works are prepared in sectional rehearsals and then rehearsed intensively during the full orchestral sessions. In addition to Principal Conductor Christoph Eschenbach, conductors like Kent Nagano, Iván Fischer, Michael Sanderling, Manfred Honeck, Krzysztof Urbanski, Vladimir Jurowski and many others work with the Festival Orchestra regularly. Tours have taken the orchestra to the European music metropolises, to the USA and China. Every summer, the Festival Orchestra is constituted anew.
Michael Sanderling, born and educated in Berlin, enjoyed a successful career as a cellist before turning to conducting. Today, the youngest son of the legendary conductor Kurt Sanderling can look back upon an impressive series of chief conductor positions: from 2006 to 2011, he was the artistic director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam; from 2011 to 2019, Sanderling was the chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. Since 2021, the 58-year-old has been chief conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra; their performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 at the Konzerthaus in Vienna was met with special acclaim and was accompanied by William Kentridge’s animated film Oh to Believe in Another World. In Berlin, Sanderling regularly conducts the Konzerthaus Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. He is a passionate champion of young musicians, not only regularly working with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, but also teaching at the Frankfurt am Main Academy of Music and Performing Arts. From 2003 to 2013, he was the chief conductor of the youth string orchestra Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie.