Wed, 30.09.2026
Julia Hagen plays Britten
Concert title
Julia Hagen plays Britten
Date
Wed 30.09.2026
Start of the concert
19:30
Contributors
Name of the ensemble
Music College Winterthur
Line
Andreas Ottensamer
Soloists
Julia Hagen - Cello
program
“The best thing ever composed for the cello,” wrote cellist Mstislav Rostropovich enthusiastically when Benjamin Britten sent him the first excerpts from his latest work in 1963 – a composition for cello and orchestra that Rostropovich had previously commissioned from the composer. This dramatic, four-movement composition is so large-scale and intricately interwoven that Britten simply called it not a concerto, but a “symphony.”
Johannes Brahms, in turn, had been agonizing over this very form – the symphony – for years. It wasn't until his Symphony No. 2 in D major that the creative block was finally broken: During a holiday at the idyllic Lake Wörthersee in 1877, the ideas for it practically flowed to him. Deep abysses, such as those that yawn open in Britten's work, can also be found in Brahms's – perhaps, however, more as an expression of that "lovely monster" against which the composer jokingly warned his publisher regarding the symphony.
A distorted cheerfulness is ultimately also found in Franz Schreker's "Intermezzo": here, the strings hover between rich sound and fragile solitude. With this work, Schreker, a recent graduate of the conservatory, won a composition competition in 1901, along with a substantial prize and a contract with the Viennese publisher Bosworth & Co.
Program:
Franz Schreker - Intermezzo for String Orchestra, Op. 8
; Benjamin Britten - Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68
; Intermission;
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Johannes Brahms, in turn, had been agonizing over this very form – the symphony – for years. It wasn't until his Symphony No. 2 in D major that the creative block was finally broken: During a holiday at the idyllic Lake Wörthersee in 1877, the ideas for it practically flowed to him. Deep abysses, such as those that yawn open in Britten's work, can also be found in Brahms's – perhaps, however, more as an expression of that "lovely monster" against which the composer jokingly warned his publisher regarding the symphony.
A distorted cheerfulness is ultimately also found in Franz Schreker's "Intermezzo": here, the strings hover between rich sound and fragile solitude. With this work, Schreker, a recent graduate of the conservatory, won a composition competition in 1901, along with a substantial prize and a contract with the Viennese publisher Bosworth & Co.
Program:
Franz Schreker - Intermezzo for String Orchestra, Op. 8
; Benjamin Britten - Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68
; Intermission;
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
address
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Ticket office (Mon–Fri, 9:30–13:30):
Stadthaus Winterthur, Stadthausstrasse 4a, CH-8400 Winterthur, Tel. +41 52 620 20 20, konzertkarten@musikkollegium.ch
Other ticket outlets
- Winterthur Tourism, Main Train Station, CH-8400 Winterthur
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Ticket office (Mon–Fri, 9:30–13:30):
Stadthaus Winterthur, Stadthausstrasse 4a, CH-8400 Winterthur, Tel. +41 52 620 20 20, konzertkarten@musikkollegium.ch
Other ticket outlets
- Winterthur Tourism, Main Train Station, CH-8400 Winterthur
- Ticket Corner, all Swiss ticket outlets
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