Here on the blog, everything usually revolves around Dynamics 365, Customer Insights and digital projects. But right from the start, the idea was to also leave room for my second passion, music. Today I am daring to make my first small contribution in this genre.
On Sunday, June 15, 2025, I will be playing a concert with the Junges Ensemble Berlin – at the Berlin Philharmonie. The program is entitled Fin de Siècle: an allusion to the exciting and turbulent time at the turn of the 20th century.
The composer Camille Saint-Saëns himself said of the main work, his 3rd Symphony: “I have given everything I could give here”. Today it is known as the “Organ Symphony”.
Composed in 1886, the work impressively combines the sonority of a large orchestra with the majestic sound of an organ, which does not stand out as a soloist but blends seamlessly into the overall sound. Saint-Saëns also broke new formal ground: instead of clearly separated movements, the sections flow into one another and develop a dense network of related themes. Despite its monumentality, the symphony retains the elegance and lightness of French Romanticism – and builds to one of the most impressive climaxes of Romantic symphonic music in the finale.
Lili Boulanger, one of the most extraordinary composers of the early 20th century, strikes a completely different note. Growing up in a famous Parisian family of musicians, she was the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome – a triumph in a male-dominated musical world. Despite a serious illness, she wrote works of breathtaking maturity and sensitivity. D’un matin de printemps, composed in 1917, is a luminous sound picture of a spring morning, impressionistically floating and yet characterized by deep emotionality. Boulanger’s early death at the age of 24 silenced a voice that is still considered one of the greatest lost treasures in music history.
With Le chasseur maudit, César Franck takes the audience into the dark world of an old legend. The symphonic poem, composed in 1882, depicts the punishment of a wicked man who blows his horn to hunt on a holy Sunday and is then eternally pursued by demons. Powerful brass fanfares and a dramatic structure lend the work a powerful narrative force – a masterpiece of French program music between Romanticism and Symbolism.
Sunday, 15 June 2025, 3:30 pm
Philharmonie Berlin, large hall
Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps
César Franck: Le chasseur maudit
Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 “Organ Symphony
Junges Ensemble Berlin | Symphony Orchestra
Michael Riedel | Direction
Website: to the Junges Ensemble Berlin
Perhaps we will see each other – I would be delighted!
For all those who want a little foretaste, here is a fantastic recording of the final movement of the Organ Symphony with Riccardo Minasi and the Hessischer Rundfunk Radio Symphony Orchestra.
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