Christoph von DohnÁnyi

Christoph von Dohnányi returns to his former orchestra for a belated birthday celebration with works by Ives, Ligeti and Tchaikovsky, the concert will be streamed live at 8pm CET on the Elbphilharmonie website, the NDR app and on Facebook:

Listen again to a live broadcast from Vienna of Christoph von Dohnányi's long awaited return

to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchstra (available until 17.12.2019).

Christoph von Dohnányi's long awaited return to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra,

was a 'Triumph of Balance', as Walter Weidringer writes for Die Presse.

You can read the full review here (in German, behind paywall):

Joachim Mischke's excellent review for the Hamburger Abendblatt of Christoph von Dohnányi's debut at the Elbphilhamonie in Hamburg, returing after 8 years to conduct his former orchestra. You can read the full review (in German) here:

for a concert on 12th April at the Philharmonie de Paris.
Directed by: Andy Sommer (c) Idéale audience - 2018

Four men in my family were executed by the Nazis. Hans von Dohnanyi, my father, honored in Yad Vashem, was killed in the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen short before the Second World War ended. At the same time the world-renowned theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, brother of my mother, my godfather, was executed in the concentration camp Flossenbürg. In 1930 Bonhoeffer began his studies in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary and learned to love and admire the United States of America.

I know today he would be extremely unhappy observing a tendency of religious intolerance in the country he once admired so much for its freedom and acceptance. He never could have imagined that this strong, great nation would find itself in the political and ethical crisis it now faces. A nation’s heart may race when it feels threatened, fearful, or even terrified. But this heart, no matter how “devout”, should never tolerate walls nor turn away those seeking help. People died at the Berlin Wall. Many people died in Hitler’s concentration camps for their unwavering beliefs in the value of their ethics and in their fellow man. These beliefs are now endangered in many Western nations including, sadly enough, the USA. This is unimaginable.

Also unimaginable, for instance: I should have a U.S. visa and move through passport control without incident. Next to me another musician would have the same kind of visa. He would be detained because he is a Muslim from Iran. He would be sent back after hours of interrogation. But Christians would be excepted from these new regulations. (By the way, Bonhoeffer - a fervent and prominent supporter of ecumenical Christianity - would have strongly opposed that.) Rising walls will unfortunately keep many talented, well educated and good people away from travelling to the U.S. this might be sad. But by far more relevant remains the question, whether walls will make anybody safer. We all know, fear and aggression produce nothing but fear and aggression.

What kind of world are we living in? A world of “Texas first!”, “California first!”, Asia, Africa, America, Europe or Australia “first!”? Or do we live in a world that puts human dignity, humanity, fearlessness and compassion above everything else? In it's great days our much-loved USA was such a country.

There is hope that the current political turmoil in the U.S. will, in fact, harm the extreme-rightwing parties in some upcoming, important European elections.

“Now well into his ninth decade (and his seventh on the podium), the indomitable German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi is showing no signs of slowing down, with a busy international schedule that encompasses some of the most physically and mentally demanding works in the core repertoire as well as a significant amount of new music.

Tomorrow sees Signum’s release of a live recording of Schubert Nine with the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom he’s enjoyed a close relationship for the past twenty years (he was appointed their Honorary Conductor for Life in 2008); reviewing the performance at the Festival Hall last June, The Guardian observed that ‘[Dohnányi’s] ability to energise a score and keep it light on its feet remains entirely undiminished’. This vitality (not to mention a disarming modesty and dry wit!) was very much in evidence when I called him in Hamburg recently to explore the evolution of his thoughts on Schubert, his attitude towards historically-informed performance, and his plans for the future…”

Read Catherine Cooper’s full interview for Presto Classical here

                   The New York Philharmonic performing Brahms’s “A German Requiem” at

                   David Geffen Hall on Thursday night. Credit Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times.

“One hopes that the years bring new depths of insight for all conductors, but it’s not every maestro who also sustains his inquisitive, exploratory energies well into his ninth decade….”

Read Jeremy Eichler’s review of Christoph von Dohnányi’s concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra this weekend here.

“…Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (a Philharmonia staple since the days of Karajan and Klemperer) maybe a work with which it is more or less impossible to fail, but there is a world of difference between the competent and what we heard here, which was an unobtrusive masterclass of the conductor’s art…”

“…What was perhaps most remarkable about Dohnányi and the Philharmonia was hearing a familiar work anew as though it were being freshly explored with an unflagging and ferocious energy and concentration…”

Read Douglas Cooksey’s full review in Classical Source here.

As part of the Christoph von Dohnányi @85 celebrations in the 2014/15 season, Christoph von Dohnányi joins Tom Service, Nicholas Payne (Director Opera Europa) and Peter Katona (Director of casting, Royal Opera House Covent Garden) at the Royal Academy of Music to reflect on his memorable career in the theatre:

Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra’s final concert of the 14/15 season with a program of Bartók, Mozart and Beethoven, with Arabella Steinbacher and Lawrence Power as soloists. You can listen to a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 for the next 4 weeks here.

In August 2014, Christoph von Dohnányi and the Philharmonia Orchestra were invited to the Salzburg Festival. Christoph von Dohnányi chose for that occasion a programme of works by Strauss and Bruckner. The live recording of Bruckner’s symphony No. 9 is out today on Signum Records.