92NY presents Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 7:30pm ET on the David Geffen Stage at Kaufmann Concert Hall and streaming online for 72 hours following the performance. Tickets start at $25 and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/akademie-fur-alte-musik-berlin.

Superstar early-music ensemble Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin comes to 92NY for the first time in a rare NYC engagement to perform their signature German Baroque works. Two of the orchestra’s esteemed soloists, internationally renowned oboist Xenia Löffler and concertmaster Georg Kallweit, bring elegance and verve to this program of masterworks by Bach and Telemann, including a little-performed work by Johann Bernhard Bach, from whom his famous cousin took inspiration.

AKADEMIE FÜR ALTE MUSIK BERLIN

Xenia Löffler, oboe

Georg Kallweit, concertmaster/solo violin

PROGRAM

JOHANN BERNHARD BACH Orchestral Suite No. 1 in G Minor

(1676-1749) Ouverture

Air

Rondeau

Loure

Fantasie

Passepied

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN Quintet in E Minor, TWV 44:5

(1681-1767) Adagio

Allegro

Grave

Allegro

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Oboe Concerto in G Minor, BWV 1056R

(1685-1750) Moderato

Largo

Presto

INTERMISSION

TELEMANN Overture-Suite in G Major, TWV 55: G10, “Burlesque de

Quixotte”

Ouverture

Le réveil de Quichotte

Son attaque des moulins à vent

Ses soupirs amoureux après la Princesse Dulcinée

Sanche Panse berné

Le galope de Rosinante

Celui d'ane de Sanche

Le couché de Quichotte

J.S. BACH Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C Minor, BWV 1060R

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus) was founded in 1982 in Berlin. Since its inception, it has become one of the world‘s leading chamber orchestras on period instruments and can look back on an unprecedented history of success.

Whether in New York or Tokyo, London or Buenos Aires, Akamus is a regular and sought-after guest on European and international concert stages. In 2005, Akamus made its US debut tour to critical acclaim and sold-out houses at many major venues. Past tours have included Carnegie Hall, Berkeley, Boston, Ann Arbor, Toronto, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Vancouver and New Orleans.

For over 35 years, the orchestra has played a subscription series at the Konzerthaus Berlin. At the Berlin State Opera, the ensemble has regularly dedicated itself to baroque opera since 1994.

Akamus performs under the changing direction of its three concertmasters—Bernhard Forck, Georg Kallweit and Mayumi Hirasaki—as well as selected conductors. The ensemble has a particularly close and long-standing artistic partnership with René Jacobs. In addition, the orchestra has recently been led by Emmanuelle Haim, Bernard Labadie, Paul Agnew, Diego Fasolis, Fabio Biondi, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Christophe Rousset.

Akamus also works regularly with internationally renowned soloists such as Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Kit Armstrong, Alexander Melnikov, Anna Prohaska and Carlo Vistoli. With the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests, they created the international successful production of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, which has been widely performed from Berlin to Sydney. The extraordinarily successful cooperation with the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, which has been equally formative for both ensembles, began more than 30 years ago. Akamus also maintains a close partnership with the Bavarian Radio Chorus.

The ensemble's recordings, which now number around one hundred, have won all the major recording awards, including the Grammy Award, Diapason d'Or, Gramophone Award, Choc de l'année, and the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics. In 2006 the orchestra received the Telemann Prize of the City of Magdeburg, and in 2014 the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig.

Recent recordings include an album dedicated to Bach’s roots with Swiss vocal ensemble Voces Suaves and an all-Vivaldi album with countertenor Carlo Vistoli (Sacro Furore). One of Akamus‘s latest, released in March 2024 on Harmonia Mundi, is “a crackling survey of symphonies from…C.P.E. Bach [and] sounds as fresh as ever” (NPR Music).

With her unmistakable oboe sound and convincing interpretations, Xenia Löffler has earned an excellent reputation.

Since 2001 she has been a member and principal oboist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and performs as a soloist and chamber musician with other ensembles and orchestras under renowned conductors worldwide. Sir John Eliot Gardiner's invitation to perform as a solo oboist in his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000 was one of the most formative experiences of her musical career.

Trained at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, she is dedicated to the exploration and recording of rarely heard oboe repertoire. Her numerous and internationally acclaimed solo recordings include CPE Bach Oboe Concertos, The Golden Age–Venetian Oboe Concerti (Harmonia Mundi France), Antonín Reichenauer Concertos (Supraphon) and Bach–Oboe Concertos and Cantatas (Accent). Several of her recordings have received notable awards including the Diapason d’Or, and nominations for the BBC Music Magazine Awards and the Gramophone Award.

She pursues her passion for chamber music with exceptional musicians such as Isabelle Faust, Maurice Steger, Vittorio Ghielmi and Václav Luks. With the Amphion Wind Octet, which she co-founded, she recorded nine highly acclaimed albums.

Löffler gives masterclasses at home and abroad, and since 2018 has been artistic director of the Summer Academy Neuburg on the Danube. She also teaches historical oboe at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

Violinist Georg Kallweit grew up in a family of doctors with a musical background in Greifswald on the Baltic Sea. After attending a specialized music school in Berlin, he studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music. In addition to his later engagement with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, he also intensively studied early music from a young age.

As concertmaster and soloist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Kallweit is recognized today as one of the most sought-after specialists in his field. Over the years he has focused on the solo repertoire of the baroque violin and the leadership of ensembles.

Alongside his work with the Akademie, he works regularly as a guest concertmaster and soloist with numerous historical and modern orchestras. He has also been active with the lutenist Björn Colell in Ombra e Luce, a duo that focuses on early Italian baroque music.

He has appeared on over seventy recordings, many of which have received international prizes. Kallweit’s musical activities have taken him to nearly all of Europe, as well as to North and South America and Asia. As an educator, he has taught at music schools in Leipzig, Weimar, Berlin, Rostock, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg, and coaches the youth baroque orchestra Bachs Erben (Bach’s Heirs).

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit http://www.92NY.org.

#