Kent Nagano, as Honorary Conductor, conducts the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) in its final Berlin concert of the 2020/2021 season on Friday, 25 June at 8 p.m. The Philharmonie will feature Paul Hindemith’s Chamber Music No. 1, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Seong-Jin Cho, and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 3. At the Kissinger Sommer, Nagano will present the same program with the DSO on June 27 – except for Hindemith’s chamber music. On July 1 in Ravello, Schubert’s Third Symphony is preceded by Richard Wagner’s ‘Siegfried Idyll’ and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with Mari Kodama.

The Philharmonic concert on Friday, 25 June conducted by Kent Nagano, former chief conductor and now honorary conductor of the DSO, will feature works with which their originators increasingly found their personal style. In Hindemith’s parodic Chamber Music No. 1, a 1920s composition full of allusions to the light music of the time, the sometimes shrill, sometimes tender movements feature a wind quartet, string quartet, piano and accordion, as well as, among other things, a siren and a can filled with sand. The young pianist Seong-Jin Cho makes his DSO debut with Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, in which his personal signature breaks through the sound idioms of Viennese Classicism. Schubert’s Third Symphony, in which he, not yet 20 years old, increasingly emancipates himself from his models Mozart and Haydn, brings the DSO season to a lively and enjoyable close.

Kent Nagano has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg since the 2015/2016 season. Before becoming honorary conductor in 2021, he led the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal from 2006 to 2020. From 2000 to 2006, he left his mark on the DSO as chief conductor and artistic director, and has been associated with the orchestra as honorary conductor ever since.

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho gained international attention when he won First Prize at the 2015 Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Most recently, the Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Manfred Honeck and Hannu Lintu, and is now making his DSO debut.

Mari Kodama made her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 1995. Since then she has been invited to perform at major festivals in Europe, Japan and the USA. Her appearances have taken the Japanese artist, who is particularly appreciated for her Mozart and Beethoven interpretations, to the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the NHK Orchestra, among others.

Fri 25 June 2021, 8 p.m., Philharmonie Berlin 
Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, KENT NAGANO
Seong-Jin Cho – piano
Hindemith: Chamber Music No. 1 for twelve solo instruments op. 24,1
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major op. 19
Schubert: Symphony No. 3 in D major D 200