The Schleißheim Palace in Munich

Mozart: Symphony in A Major, KV 201
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Suite
Bruch: Violin Concerto in G Minor
Bellini: Oboe Concerto

Mon-Fu Lee – violin & Residence-Soloists

From Classical Clarity to Romantic Passion

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony in A Major, KV 201
With the A Major Symphony, Mozart steps forward in 1774, moving beyond mere decorative writing. No triumphant chord announces the beginning; instead, a quiet octave in the strings opens the work—a tentative gesture that gradually swells and illuminates the entire sound space. The music does not assert itself loudly; it convinces through inner tension. Between chamber-like transparency and symphonic vitality, a remarkable balance emerges for an eighteen-year-old. The radiant cheerfulness is almost Mediterranean in character, yet never superficial. In the intricate motivic development and the natural handling of form and proportion, one already senses the master who would define the Viennese Classical style.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – A Midsummer Night’s Dream Suite
A sparkling magic fills the air. Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream draws the listener into a world of fairies and nocturnal enchantment. The music breathes with lightness, yet never loses its form. Sprightly rhythms keep the scene moving, as if invisible creatures are dancing through the soundscape, while the occasional braying of an ass adds whimsical humor. Always present is a touch of Romantic irony, as if the music knows that every dream is fragile. One listens and realizes: this is no naive fairyland. It is a dream conscious of itself, already sensing at dawn that it will dissolve—and it is precisely in that awareness that its poetry unfolds.

Max Bruch – Violin Concerto in G Minor
The concerto does not begin with dazzling virtuosity, but with a question. The orchestra opens a shadowed space, and the violin enters like a singing voice. The first movement unfolds as a probing, dramatically tense prelude that flows seamlessly into the Adagio. Here, time seems to stand still. The violin sings with expansive, intimate, almost painfully beautiful lines. These are melodies that do not seek to impress, and yet overwhelm through their sincerity. The finale brooks no lingering; rhythmic energy erupts, igniting a fiery dance filled with technical brilliance and compelling motion. Late Romantic passion shines at its most intense—ardent, powerful, unrestrained.

Vincenzo Bellini – Oboe Concerto
Even in his Oboe Concerto, Bellini thinks in terms of song. Though he dominated the opera stage, this youthful work is shaped like a scene without words. The oboe appears as a primadonna, unfolding long, lyrical lines entirely in the spirit of bel canto. The strings accompany with elegant restraint, allowing space to breathe. In the finale, the music gains playful lightness; the soloist demonstrates agility while never losing the cantabile line. The concerto remains a charming, melodically rich homage to the Italian school and a vivid reminder that, even in instrumental music, the voice never falls silent.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – complete
Boccherini: Fandango & Madrid for Guitar and Strings
Albéniz: Asturias and other famous Spanish compositions for Guitar

Vladyslav Indyk - Guitar, Marcelino Rojas - Violin & Residence-Soloists

A Spanish-Italian Evening: Music Full of Sun and Passion

We begin in Baroque Venice, where the “Red Priest,” Antonio Vivaldi, made history with The Four Seasons. A master at making nature speak without a single word, Vivaldi pushed the violin to its expressive limits. The Four Seasons is more than a melody; it is an immersive experience that brings the renewal of nature directly into the concert hall.

Isaac Albéniz – Asturias
Although the title suggests the green north of Spain, this piece breathes the fiery soul of Andalusia. Originally composed for piano in 1892, it became an icon of Spanish music through its transcription for guitar—an instrument Albéniz often “tailored” his music for. He initially titled it simply Leyenda (Legend), a fitting name for a work that has since become one of the most globally recognized melodies in classical music.

Luigi Boccherini – La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid
Imagine sitting at an open window on a warm summer night in 1780. Outside, the winding streets of Madrid come alive. Luigi Boccherini, the Italian virtuoso living in Spain, captures these fleeting moments in his String Quintet Op. 30 No. 6—a work so exclusive that he believed no one outside Spain could truly grasp its charm. This piece is more than chamber music; it is an acoustic painting, blurring the line between concert hall and street. Immerse yourself in a world of shadow, light, and the unbridled rhythm of old Spain.

His famous Fandango is a deliberate provocation of courtly etiquette: he brought the passionate, almost seductive street dance into chamber music, often crowned with the crisp rhythm of real castanets.

Vivaldi: Concerto for Piccolo Flute Il Cardellino
Vivaldi: Flute Concerto La tempesta di mare
Vivaldi: Concerto for Piccolo Flute in C Major
Vivaldi: Spring & Summer from The Four Seasons
Mozart: Overture from The Magic Flute
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Suite
Gershwin: Summertime 
 

Janine Schöllhorn – flute, Marcelino Rojas– violin & Residence-Soloists

From Baroque Birds to Gershwin’s Jazz Dream

In the quiet halls of the Ospedale della Pietà for orphaned girls in Venice, music was created to reach far beyond its walls. Antonio Vivaldi composed his flute and piccolo concertos for the exceptionally talented young musicians of the institute—virtuosos who became both his performers and his experimental canvas. In the piccolo concerto Il Cardellino (The Goldfinch), the tiny instrument comes alive: it chirps, flutters, and trills as if a little bird were perched within the orchestra. Vivaldi does not treat nature as mere decoration—he makes it a sonic event.

In the flute concerto La tempesta di mare, nature erupts from the idyllic into the elemental. Rapid runs leap across registers, cascading waves of sound rise and fall, and the strings tremble under an imaginary wind. Here, the sea is not painted—it rages. In the piccolo concerto, the instrument itself becomes a marvel: soaring to extreme heights, moving at breathtaking speed, a performance at the very edge of possibility. Virtuosity is never an end in itself—it is the expression of overflowing energy.

With The Four Seasons, Vivaldi expands the view to the cyclical rhythms of nature. In Spring (La Primavera), the awakening of the world is heard: bird song threads through the violins, streams murmur in gentle figures. Vivaldi even published explanatory sonnets to accompany his concertos, anchoring the music firmly in imagery—the second movement depicts a sleeping shepherd under the watch of a viola, while a dog barks in the distance. Summer (L’Estate), by contrast, is heavy and oppressive. The heat shimmers in dense harmonies, fatigue spreads, and the finale erupts into a thunderstorm: lightning flashes, thunder rolls, nature unleashes itself with dramatic force.

Another gateway opens with Mozart’s overture to The Magic Flute. Three solemn chords stand like pillars in the room—serious, symbolic, imbued with Masonic gravitas. But soon everything is in motion: a lively fugato unfolds, clever, spirited, and full of theatrical tension. Mozart composed this overture under immense time pressure; it is said the sheets were still wet with ink at the premiere in 1791. Perhaps it is precisely this risk of the moment that one feels in every turn of the music.

The evening concludes with Summertime—the floating, haunting melody from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. It echoes tradition, spirituals, and folk songs, yet it is entirely new. Gershwin composes authenticity; he invents a musical memory. Perhaps that is the secret of the song: it feels as if it has always existed, waiting only to be recognized.

The result is a concert that weaves together nature and theater, Baroque delight, classical symbolism, and the dreamlike world of Romantic and American music.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Mozart: Serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Rossini: String Serenade in C Major & “Aria of Figaro”
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 6

Simon Zhu *- violin & Residenz Soloists

* 1.Pricewinner Premio Paganini Genoa 2023

Following this achievement, he performed for King Charles III on the famous “Cannone” by Guarneri del Gesù.

A summer festival concert at Schleißheim Palace: the evening air lies gently over the baroque façades, the sky stretches wide above the garden parterre, and even before the first note is played, the scene itself seems to breathe music. In this radiant setting, Antonio Vivaldi’s Le quattro stagioni unfolds.

When Vivaldi published these concertos in 1725, he created more than agreeable Baroque music—he designed a living theater of nature. In Spring, the violins chirp like excited birds, streams murmur in flowing lines, everything seems to bloom. Yet the idyll is not without interruption: a brief thunderstorm sweeps through, tremolos flashing like lightning across the orchestra. In the second movement, the shepherd rests, dreamily sketched by the solo violin, while the viola with dry, repeated notes imitates the “barking dog”—a charming detail that sharpens the imagery with a wink.

Summer lays a heavy weight on the shoulders. In the accompanying sonnets, Vivaldi explains: the cuckoo calls, the turtledove responds, a gentle wind stirs. Beneath the surface, tension grows. Finally, the storm breaks, unleashed and dramatic, as if the heavens themselves discharge over the palace gardens.

Autumn celebrates the harvest. Dance rhythms stomp, wine flows freely, the violins laugh. Merriment and good wine lull the peasants to sleep. During the hunt, gunshots ring out while the fleeing game is musically depicted in fast runs by the solo violin.

Winter finally cuts sharply through the summer warmth of this evening. The strings make the teeth chatter, rapid repetitions freeze the air. Footsteps crunch on ice, skaters glide—and fall. Yet even here, there is beauty in frost, a clear, sparkling transparency.

A change of scene: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik begins, seemingly made for such an open-air evening. Perhaps originally composed for a summer gathering, it now epitomizes classical cheerfulness. The themes are radiant, the elegance effortless. That a movement of the serenade is lost makes it a fragment—but one that feels complete.

Italian temperament enters with Gioachino Rossini. His string serenade bursts with energy, and in the “Aria of Figaro” from The Barber of Seville, the music races along in breathless tempo. Wit, virtuosity, and exuberant joy combine into a musical firework that sets even the palace walls vibrating.

On this summer evening at Schleißheim Palace, a panorama of the seasons and moods unfolds—nature, theater, and musical storytelling blending into a vivid, unforgettable experience.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Mozart: Serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Rossini: String Serenade in C Major & “Aria of Figaro”
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 6

Simon Zhu *- violin & Residenz Soloists

*1st Prize at the Premio Paganini in Genoa 2023. Following this achievement, he performed for King Charles III on the famous “Cannone” by Guarneri del Gesù.

A summer festival concert at Schleißheim Palace: the evening air lies gently over the baroque façades, the sky stretches wide above the garden parterre, and even before the first note is played, the scene itself seems to breathe music. In this radiant setting, Antonio Vivaldi’s Le quattro stagioni unfolds.

When Vivaldi published these concertos in 1725, he created more than agreeable Baroque music—he designed a living theater of nature. In Spring, the violins chirp like excited birds, streams murmur in flowing lines, everything seems to bloom. Yet the idyll is not without interruption: a brief thunderstorm sweeps through, tremolos flashing like lightning across the orchestra. In the second movement, the shepherd rests, dreamily sketched by the solo violin, while the viola with dry, repeated notes imitates the “barking dog”—a charming detail that sharpens the imagery with a wink.

Summer lays a heavy weight on the shoulders. In the accompanying sonnets, Vivaldi explains: the cuckoo calls, the turtledove responds, a gentle wind stirs. Beneath the surface, tension grows. Finally, the storm breaks, unleashed and dramatic, as if the heavens themselves discharge over the palace gardens.

Autumn celebrates the harvest. Dance rhythms stomp, wine flows freely, the violins laugh. Merriment and good wine lull the peasants to sleep. During the hunt, gunshots ring out while the fleeing game is musically depicted in fast runs by the solo violin.

Winter finally cuts sharply through the summer warmth of this evening. The strings make the teeth chatter, rapid repetitions freeze the air. Footsteps crunch on ice, skaters glide—and fall. Yet even here, there is beauty in frost, a clear, sparkling transparency.

A change of scene: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik begins, seemingly made for such an open-air evening. Perhaps originally composed for a summer gathering, it now epitomizes classical cheerfulness. The themes are radiant, the elegance effortless. That a movement of the serenade is lost makes it a fragment—but one that feels complete.

Italian temperament enters with Gioachino Rossini. His string serenade bursts with energy, and in the “Aria of Figaro” from The Barber of Seville, the music races along in breathless tempo. Wit, virtuosity, and exuberant joy combine into a musical firework that sets even the palace walls vibrating.

On this summer evening at Schleißheim Palace, a panorama of the seasons and moods unfolds—nature, theater, and musical storytelling blending into a vivid, unforgettable experience.

Verdi: Overture from Nabucco
Haydn: Symphony No. 73 in D Major “La chasse”
Mozart: Symphony in A Major KV 201
Dvořák: Suite – From the New World
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 6
J. Strauß: Die Jagd – Quick Polka

Residence- Soloists

In the grand festival hall of Schleißheim Palace, an autumn concert unfolds—rich in color, contrast, and shifting moods.

The evening opens with the overture to Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi. Dramatic blocks of sound alternate with lyrical passages, and already here, the yearning motif of the later world-famous “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” appears. According to legend, this section of the libretto inspired Verdi—after a period of personal hardships—to return to composing.

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 73, “La chasse,” brings a classical autumn scene to the hall. Its nickname comes from the fourth movement, “The Hunt,” where horn signals and galloping rhythms conjure a traditional hunting scene. Known for his humor, Haydn plays with expectations: unlike many hunt pieces of the era, the final movement fades away gently, as if the hunting party simply rides off into the distance.

Youthful elegance characterizes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony in A Major KV 201. Despite its modest instrumentation, the work is remarkably rich in color and expression—a light, airy composition written by the eighteen-year-old composer in Salzburg.

Antonín Dvořák’s From the New World Suite opens vast sonic landscapes. Impressions from America—the street noise of New York, rhythms reminiscent of spirituals, expansive Native American-inspired melodies, and Slavic dances—blend with Dvořák’s deep longing for his Bohemian homeland.

The cheerful finale is Johann Strauss’s quick polka Die Jagd. At its premiere in Vienna’s Volksgarten, the audience was so captivated by the loud whip cracks and playful “Hali-Hallo” calls in the orchestra that the piece had to be repeated immediately. Strauss masterfully used such effects to stir the exuberant atmosphere of the Viennese ball season.

Verdi: Ouverture from „Nabucco“ 
Vivaldi: Fluteconcerto
Mozart: Fluteconcerto Re major KV 314
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 „Eroica“

Residence - Soloists

Concert Program – From Baroque to Romantic 
This program takes the audience on a journey through centuries: from Vivaldi’s Baroque virtuosity and Mozart’s Classical elegance to Verdi’s operatic drama and Beethoven’s groundbreaking Romantic vision, offering both historical insight and musical adventure.

Overture to Nabucco – Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi’s overture to Nabucco bursts with drama and intensity, immediately drawing the listener into the world of the biblical story. Nabucco was the opera that first brought Verdi widespread acclaim in 1842, and its overture foreshadows the sweeping emotional contrasts of the full work. Anecdotally, when Verdi conducted early performances, audiences were reportedly so moved by the overture’s grandeur that many stood in silent awe before the first act even began. The work’s heroic gestures and majestic themes set the perfect tone for a program that moves from Baroque elegance to Romantic drama.

Flute Concerto – Antonio Vivaldi
Vivaldi’s flute concerto showcases the brilliance of the Baroque flute, an instrument that was considered both delicate and expressive. His concertos often feature virtuosic passages that push the limits of the performer’s technique. Legend has it that Vivaldi, nicknamed the “Red Priest” for his hair, would sometimes write last-minute passages specifically to challenge his students at the Ospedale della Pietà, where he taught orphaned girls. The interplay between soloist and orchestra in this concerto captures the vibrant energy of Venetian Baroque music, alternating between lyrical melodies and sparkling, rhythmic brilliance.

Flute Concerto in D Major – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s flute concerto in D major exemplifies the elegance and clarity of the Classical era. Written in 1778 for the Dutch flutist Ferdinand De Jean, the work features graceful melodies and refined dialogue between soloist and orchestra. An interesting anecdote: Mozart reportedly struggled to compose the concerto while traveling, writing letters to his father expressing frustration over deadlines and the flutist’s “insatiable demands.” Despite these challenges, the concerto radiates effortless charm and wit, combining virtuosic passages with lyrical, song-like themes that continue to captivate audiences today.

Symphony No. 3 – Eroica – Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven’s Eroica symphony is a revolutionary work that transformed the symphonic tradition. Originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven famously withdrew the dedication when Napoleon declared himself Emperor, reportedly tearing the dedication page in anger. The symphony’s first movement introduces heroic motifs, dramatic tension, and bold harmonic exploration. The funeral march of the second movement contrasts tragedy with triumph, while the finale bursts with joy, wit, and exuberance. The Eroica represents Beethoven’s belief in music as a vehicle for human heroism and emotional depth, making it a cornerstone of the Romantic symphonic repertoire.