Music Festival Days in The Diamond – Saturday
See Saturday's programme for Music Festival Days in The Diamond.
Music Festival Days in The Diamond is a smorgasbord of concerts, talks, workshops and much more based on classical music for both children and adults - organised in collaboration with Trio con Brio Copenhagen.
What are Music Festival Days in the Diamond?
What tickets are there, is there wheelchair access and do you serve food? Get answers to almost all your questions on this page full of important information about Music Festival Days.
Get a wealth of musical experiences when The Black Diamond is filled with music – from gala concerts in the Queen's Hall to pop-up concerts on the Kirkeby Bridge to intimate solo concerts in the big house's secret nooks and crannies.
At Music Festival Days you can experience a number of international names as well as Denmark's renowned ensembles and young talents. Together, they will unfold the diversity of classical music for 35 concerts on more than seven stages distributed in The Black Diamond and the old library building over two days in a cornucopia of very special musical experiences.
Concerts in the Queen's Hall
Experience the orchestras in the Royal Danish Library's large concert hall the Queen's Hall.
Hear some of the talent pool of the classical Danish musical life. Several of them majorly impressed in the Queen's Hall in autumn 2023, something that just begs for a revisit. For this concert they play together again in the Queen's Hall with music by Gustav Mahler, Erich Korngold and Charles Ives.
Participants
Gustav Piekut, piano
Jonas Frølund, clarinet
Michael Germer, violin
Nicholas Algot Swensen, viola
Jonathan Algot Swensen, cello
Programme
Gustav Mahler, Quartet movement
Charles Ives, Largo for clarinet, violin, cello and piano
Erich Korngold, Piano Quintet Op. 15
Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 15 is one of the most moving of all Shostakovich's compositions, and arguably the most intimate of his quartets. If there were a season for all things, then Shostakovich's 15th Quartet would be in the darkness of midwinter. Come along when the Casals Quartet - one of Spain's most important quartets - takes the audience on a journey into the universe of one of the Soviet Union's greatest composers.
Participants
The Casals Quartet (ES)
Vera Martinez, violin
Abel Thomas, violin
Jonathan Brown, viola
Arnau Thomás, cello
Programme
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15
The German piano quartet with the name Fauré has done very well since 1995, not just as a traditional piano quartet, but also as a developer of new repertoire with a visionary and contemporary approach to the possibilities of the quartet. Hear them in the programme Exhibitionwith their version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Rakhmaninov's Étude-Tableaux.
Participants
Dirk Mommertz, piano
Erika Geldsetzer, violin
Sascha Frömbling, viola
Konstantin Heidrich, cello
Programme
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Rachmaninov: Étude-Tableuax (excerpt)
Experience Trio con Brio Copenhagen with the Impression programme. The main work for this concert is Maurice Ravel's iconic trio from 1914. Ravel himself said that he "worked with the certainty and clarity of a madman", completing "five months' work in five weeks". The work has been in the repertoire for all of the 25 years that Trio con Brio Copenhagen has existed - today the trio hardly need to look at the sheet music when they play it!
Participants
Trio con Brio Copenhagen:
Soo-Jin Hong, violin
Soo-Kyung Hong, cello
Jens Elvekjær, piano
Programme
Maurice Ravel, Piano Trio in A minor
More works to follow
The concert lasts two hours incl. break.
At the end of these two days of lots of music, the day's participants will present a cornucopia of classic gems, with a few detours for a jig or other surprising elements. The music is by Prokofiev, Ravel, Brahms, Fauré and many more.
A fireworks display at the end with all the participating musicians from Music Festival Days on the same stage.
Participants
Trio Con Brio Copenhagen, Fauré Quartet, Matthias Loibner, Nataša Mirković, Mathias Hammer, Tessa Lark, Michael Thurber, Gustav Piekut, Jonas Frølund, Michael Germer, Nicholas Algot Swensen, Jonathan Algot Swensen, Aleksandra Dzenesenia.
Programme
Maurice Ravel, Tzigane
Sergej Prokofiev, Overtures with Hebrew Themes Op. 34
Johannes Brahms
Gabriel Faure
Franz Schubert
And much more!
The Galley Hall: For children
For children and their adults.
All children can compose music! Take the children by the hand and take them to the composer's workshop. It does not require any prerequisites, just turn up and have a few fun hours in the company of Peter Bruun and Trio con Brio Copenhagen, and help make the Sound of Horror.
If a movie is too scary, it does not help to look away. Because the sound is always much scarier than the pictures! We compose for thrills with sounds and instruments we can play ourselves. And finally we do a small concert, where we play our horror music together with the musicians from Trio Con Brio Copenhagen, who play the violin, cello and piano.
Concerts in the exhibitions in the Rotunda
Experience concerts in the exhibition Press Photo of the Year 2023.
Join us on an incredibly breathtaking journey into the Austrian winter landscape. "This is truly one of the most breathtaking and moving versions of Franz Shubert's Winterreise I have ever heard", says programme manager Jesper Egelund about the version of one of the major works of music history that we will hear at this concert. It is vocal chamber music with 24 songs to texts by the poet Wilhelm Müller, which in this version is performed by singer Nataša Mirković and Matthias Loibner on the hurdy-gurdy (turning lyre).
Participants
Nataša Mirković, song
Matthias Loibner, hurdy-gurdy
Programme
Franz Schubert, Winterreise (arr. Loibner/ Mirković)
Hear the talent pool of the classical Danish musical life. The musicians are the brothers Algot Swensen, who are both storming forward with great strides in the world of classical music, together with the just 21-year-old violinist Michael Germer. Here the three take turns in duo constellations with music by Ravel, Martinů and Manuel. They can also be heard at other locations as soloists.
Participants
Michael Germer, violin
Nicholas Algot Swensen, viola
Jonathan Algot Swensen, cello
Programme
Manuel Ponce, duo for violin and viola
Bohuslav Martinů, three madrigals for violin and viola
Maurice Ravel, duo sonata for violin and cello
Experience the highly sought-after American violinist Tessa Lark, who has been nominated for a Grammy for best classical instrumental solo, together with composer and bassist Michael Thurber. In this concert, the duo takes their joint album Invention as a starting point. The album's musical expression is a combination of styles from completely different branches of instrumental music, and includes both inspirations from American folk music, bluegrass and Bach, whose inventions the duo has both interpreted and named the album after.
Participants
Tessa Lark, violin
Michael Thurber, double bass
Programme
JS Bach Inventions
Thurber/Lark
Photo: Malthe Ivarsson
The bridge between the reading rooms
Concerts from the bridge between the study reading room and the research reading room on level 2. Experience the concerts from the bridges on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors or in the Atrium
One musician with his instrument, and some slightly unusual ones. Experience Matthias Loibner playing the hurdy-gurdy – or in Danish: drejlire! Austrian Matthias Loibner is both a composer and a hurdy-gurdy player. In his compositions, he includes the hurdy-gurdy in both classical, jazz and improvisational music. Experience him playing his own compositions on the distinctive instrument at this concert.
Participants
Matthias Loibner (AT)
Programme
Loibner: own compositions
Here it is Jonas Frølund, one of Denmark's most promising young clarinetists, who fills the Atrium with crisp tones. With a heart that beats for chamber music, solo performances and the dissemination of musical heritage and energy to both young and old. Hear i.a. music from his new solo release solo alone and more .
Participants
Jonas Frølund, clarinet
Programme
Igor Stravinsky, three pieces for solo clarinet
Poul Ruders, Tattoo for One
Richard Wagner, Tristan and Isolde (arr. for solo clarinet)
Simon Steen Andersen, De Profundis
Concerts on the quay
Experience a real surprise in the middle of the quay in front of the Diamond. In case of bad weather, the programme points are moved inside the Atrium.
Concerts in the Old Reading Room
You will find the atmospheric Old Reading Room in the old library building at the end of the Kirkeby Bridge.
A concert for and with children, Mathias Hammer and Trio con Brio. The music sets the mood of a concert with "horror". This is done i.a. with excerpts from the Polish horror writer Stefan Grabiński's stories, e.g. about the ghost train that never stops. The music is by Mieczysław Weinberg and by children with parents from the composition workshop THE SOUND OF HORROR.
Participants
Mathias Hammer
Trio con Brio Copenhagen
Peter Bruun and participants from the composition workshop THE SOUND OF HORROR.
Programme
Mieczyslaw Weinberg
Franz Schubert
Composers from the composition workshop THE SOUND OF HORROR
Meet a true virtuoso in violinist Tessa Lark. Lark is one of the most captivating musicians of our time, consistently praised for her compelling playing. She is increasingly in demand in the classical world, and e.g. jumped in with a week's notice as a soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a completely newly written violin concerto last year. She is also recognised as a violinist in the tradition of her home state of Kentucky, and she can move effortlessly from bluegrass to virtuoso violin music, such as the music of Belgian Eugène Ysaÿe, which is on the programme for this concert.
Participants
Tessa Lark, violin
Programme
Eugène Ysaÿe, sonatas
Tessa Lark
Join us on an incredibly breathtaking journey into the Austrian winter landscape. "This is truly one of the most breathtaking and moving versions of Franz Shubert's Winterreise I have ever heard", says programme manager Jesper Egelund about the version of one of the major works of music history that we will hear at this concert. It is vocal chamber music with 24 songs to texts by the poet Wilhelm Müller, which in this version is performed by singer Nataša Mirković and Matthias Loibner on the hurdy-gurdy (turning lyre).
Participants
Nataša Mirković, song
Matthias Loibner, hurdy-gurdy
Programme
Franz Schubert, Winterreise (arr. Loibner/ Mirković)
Photo: Benjamin Allen
The tour
Meeting point: The main entrance between the swing doors and the shop.
The tour is a walking tour in both the Black Diamond and in the older part of the library, the Holm and Hansen buildings - including places that are not normally accessible to the public. Along the way, we talk about the architecture, history, cultural activities and the Royal Danish Library - and in several places you will be surprised by a musician! Eg. of Bach's solo music or folk music from Austria or Belarus.
Participants
Depending on Music Festival Days' other programme, three to four of the musicians who are present take part.
Concerts on the Kirkeby Bridge
Experience concerts under Per Kirkeby's wonderful ceiling painting on the bridge that unites "new" and "old": Kirkeby Bridge.
One musician with her instrument, and some slightly unusual ones. Experience Aleksandra Dzenisenia playing the cimbalom – or in Danish: hakkebræt! Aleksandra Dzenisenia is a cimbalomist - one of the most distinguished of her kind - and has even been called "The Goddess of cimbalom". Experience her in this solo concert of Belarusian folk music and music by the living Romanian-Hungarian composer György Kurtág.
Participants
Aleksandra Dzenisenia (BR/FR)
Programme
György Kurtág and Belarusian folk music
One musician with his instrument, and some slightly unusual ones. Experience Matthias Loibner playing the hurdy-gurdy – or in Danish: drejlire! Austrian Matthias Loibner is both a composer and a hurdy-gurdy player. In his compositions, he includes the hurdy-gurdy in both classical, jazz and improvisational music. Experience him playing his own compositions on the distinctive instrument at this concert.
Participants
Matthias Loibner (A)
Programme
Loibner: own compositions
Music Festival Days in The Diamond is sponsored by the Augustinus Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the William Demant Foundation, the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation and the Knud Højgaard Foundation.