„Young Voices, Great Masters“ – Grosse Tonhalle Zurich

Young Voices, Great Masters

Empyrean Orchestra under the direction of Kevin Griffiths, with cellist Emilie Richter and the Side-by-Side project by SwissMusiKids and Empyrean Academy.

What makes music young? Certainly not the year it was written. This programme travels through more than a century of musical history, showing how immediate, surprising and present great music can remain across the ages.

In Vivaldi, spring itself becomes a symbol of awakening. Nature stirs, everything begins to move and glow. Mozart's overture to Le nozze di Figaro, too, is filled with irrepressible energy. Without introduction it plunges straight into the action, full of wit, pace and anticipation.

In Haydn, the cello takes centre stage. His First Cello Concerto combines classical elegance with virtuosity, playfulness and youthful spirit of discovery. Soloist Emilie Richter meets this work both as a young musician and with remarkable stage experience.

Bach's Double Concerto sets two independent voices side by side. They answer one another, take up each other's ideas and carry them forward while remaining distinct. Individuality and community are not opposites here, but conditions for one another. This very idea comes vividly to life in the Side-by-Side project: young musicians from SwissMusiKids and Empyrean Academy play side by side with the professionals of the Empyrean Orchestra. In Bach's Double Concerto, several of them together take the first solo part, while the other group shapes the second. Many young individuals thus become two voices, and from these, in turn, a single shared sound.

In the Vivaldi, too, the young musicians stand on stage together with the professionals.

The evening ends with Beethoven, and with him a departure into a new era. His Second Symphony is still rooted in Haydn's classical world, yet everywhere a new, distinctive voice already presses forward: powerful, surprising and full of contrasts.

This programme thus tells a story of passing on and moving forward. Young voices meet great masters, one generation builds on the last, and something new is forever emerging from tradition. For Kevin Griffiths this idea carries a very personal meaning: once a Zurich Boys' Choir chorister himself, he is especially delighted now to stand on stage once again with the Zurich Boys' Choir and make music together.

For perhaps this is precisely the secret of this music: it stays young for as long as a new generation brings it to life with curiosity, courage and a voice of its own.

Side-by-Side project participants:

SwissMusiKids

Empyrean Academy