1st symphony concert

The Aachen Symphony Orchestra opens its new season with its first symphony concert, “Austausch” (Exchange), under the title “Chemical Reactions.” The orchestra invites the audience to start or end the weekend with music. Levente Török, one of the two final candidates to succeed the general music director, will conduct.

Under the motto “Chemical reactions,” the Aachen Symphony Orchestra presents pieces “in interesting, reactive combinations that emphasize the dialogue and interactions of music in various ways,” according to General Music Director Christopher Ward. “Exchange reactions” are a principle that shapes our daily lives.

The evening will open with the orchestral work “Changing” by Slovenian composer Nina Šenk, this season's “Composer in Focus.” Šenk describes her piece as “breathing in and out,” in which sounds are constantly changing. The other works in the program are also characterized by exchange: he was inspired by the sounds of North Africa to embark on a musical journey to the Orient – an exchange between France and Egypt.

Finally, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov transports us to the world of “One Thousand and One Nights”: in his suite “Scheherazade,” he paints a picture of an imaginary and fairy-tale Orient in beguiling orchestral colors. The result is a concert program that makes exchange audible in many facets – between sounds, cultures, centuries, and disciplines.