NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Batiashvili / Gilbert by Various, Erb 12 Jan 2022, Minn (2022/2022), Surmast Direttur Alan Gilbert, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany

Five years have passed since the Elbphilharmonie opened its (concert hall) doors and Hamburg residents finally had the chance to occupy their new landmark. That’s cause for celebration! Hamburg orchestras and a number of famous guests play for a whole week to mark the occasion. The anniversary of the opening of the Grand Hall is in the hands of the Elbphilharmonie orchestra-in-residence under its chief conductor Alan Gilbert. Once again, just like five years ago at the inauguration, the concert programmes underline the clear belief that both the orchestra and the Elbphilharmonie have in contemporary music. Where there’s a birthday, there has to be a fanfare! And tonight’s fanfare is contributed by American composer John Adams in his own refined style: in minimalist fashion, in his »Tromba lontana« the composer has two trumpets from different directions meet up with the incessant driving pulse of the orchestra – music as good as tailor-made for the Elbphilharmonie’s 360-degree sound! After this, Adams’s breakneck »Short Ride in a Fast Machine« literally takes off, not unlike concert operations at the Elbphilharmonie, whose five-year success story seems to have passed by in a flash. Then a good acquaintance returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, namely the Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein, to present his new showpiece, the latest piano concerto by British composer Thomas Adès. With its mix of classical and jazzy sounds, the concerto was already praised to the skies at its 2019 first performance in Boston. The evening comes to an end with music originally composed to mark the inauguration of a concert hall, and which, like the Adams piece, plays with the room’s spatial possibilities: Esa-Pekka Salonen took his inspiration for »Wing on Wing« (2004) from the undulating architecture of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. And his soloists likewise move around the room, something that works at least as well in the Elbphilharmonie, which is dedicating an extensive spotlight to Salonen in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.