Concert information
At the invitation of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Info
Spotlight on the next generation of orchestral musicians! The Bundesjugendorchester (National Youth Orchestra of Germany) brings together the country’s finest young instrumentalists – and, as a “godchild” of the Berliner Philharmoniker, is a regular and welcome guest on our stage. This time, the BJO performs Felix Mendelssohn’s wonderfully dreamy Violin Concerto, with Dutch violinist Stephen Waarts as soloist. Under the baton of Estonian conductor Anu Tali, the programme also includes vivid musical narratives: Sibelius’s mysterious tone poem Pohjola’s Daughter, Mendelssohn’s dramatic Athalia Overture, and Stravinsky’s colourful Firebird.
Artists
National Youth Orchestra of Germany
Anu Tali conductor
Stephen Waarts violin
Programme
Jean Sibelius
Pohjola’s Daughter, op. 49
Felix Mendelssohn
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, op. 64
Stephen Waarts violin
Interval
Felix Mendelssohn
Athalia, Incidental Music, op. 74: Overture
Igor Stravinsky
LʼOiseau de feu (The Firebird), Suite (version from 1919)
Additional information
Duration ca. 2 hours and 15 minutes (incl. 20 minutes interval)
Main Auditorium
9 to 45 €
Biography
Anu Tali
“If all you did was to play the notes, the result would be boring,” says Anu Tali. Celebrated by the International Herald Tribune as “charismatic, brilliant” and “energetic,” Tali has been praised for her ability to read scores between the lines, shaping music organically — like chamber music on a grand scale. She belongs to a generation of internationally-minded conductors whose careers unfold across musical cultures. In 1997, together with her twin sister Kadri Tali, she founded the Estonian–Finnish Symphony Orchestra in Tallinn (today the Nordic Symphony Orchestra), which brings together 90 musicians from 15 nations and which she continues to lead to this day.
As a guest conductor, the former Music Director of the Sarasota Orchestra has also set notable milestones: in 2021, she became the first woman to conduct an opera at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville; she led a new production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden; and she conducted acclaimed concert performances of Heiner Goebbels’ Songs of Wars I Have Seen, including at New York’s Lincoln Center. Anu Tali began her musical career as a pianist before studying conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music with Kuno Areng, Toomas Kapten, and Roman Matsov. Her training was further enriched by masterclasses with Jorma Panula and studies at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory with Ilya Musin and Leonid Korchmar.
Stephen Waarts
Acclaimed for his technical brilliance and silvery, shimmering tone, the young violinist Stephen Waarts has established himself among the leaders of his field. After studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Li Lin, the Dutch-American violinist moved across the United States at the age of 15 to continue his training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Aaron Rosand.
Following his bachelor’s degree and numerous competition successes – including prizes at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition in 2014 and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2015 – Stephen Waarts moved to Germany. From 2016 he studied at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin. In 2017 he received the Avery Fisher Career Grant Award, followed in 2019 by the Orchestra Award of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). From 2021 to 2023 he was a Fellow of the Kronberg Academy. Today, Stephen Waarts appears as a guest with renowned orchestras such as the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, presenting a broad repertoire that encompasses both core works and rarely heard gems.
Bundesjugendorchester
Kirill Petrenko notes the commitment and focus the members of the Bundesjugendorchester bring to their work, qualities that underpin the orchestra’s reputation for youthful intensity combined with a high level of technical discipline. The young musicians in the BJO, aged between 14 and 19, generally still have their regular music studies ahead of them - assuming they choose this path. The intention to make music their profession is not one of the prerequisites for joining the orchestra, which is supported by the German Music Council.
Rather, it is about a love of music, the desire to be a team player, and a high level of technical ability. In 2013, the Berliner Philharmoniker became a patron of the BJO, which is why it invites the young musicians to Berlin every year. Many former members of the Bundesjugendorchester now play in professional orchestras or have become well-known soloists, such as Sabine Meyer, Christian Tetzlaff and Tabea Zimmermann. Tours have taken the BJO, which has been conducted by Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Masur, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle and Kirill Petrenko, among others, throughout Europe as well as to North and South America, Asia and Africa.
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