Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

They were both composers who were nothing if not obstinate: week after week, Johann Sebastian Bach lived in a state of productive tension in order to compose his next cantata for Sunday service. But routine never crept in: his huge body of over 200 cantatas is marked by the utmost musical expression combined with a deep religious sense. A hundred years later, Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony – a work that turned the concert platform into a place of »moral debate« as Friedrich Schiller saw it, with a clear call for liberty and humanity. Enoch zu Guttenberg has regrettably been forced to cancel his participation in this concert due to illness. Conductor Markus Poschner steps in for him: for the last of this season’s Philharmonic Concerts, he brings Bach and Beethoven under one roof, with the cantata »Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis« serving as the introduction to what must be the best-known work in all music history.