Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester

It's not easy to talk and play an instrument at the same time, it's easy to get stuck or out of rhythm. In jazz, musicians sometimes accompany individual passages with spoken vocals. The percussion concerto 'Speaking Drums' takes the opposite approach. The drummer first speaks rhythmic syllables, then passes the rhythm on to his instrument, teaching it to speak, until it finally speaks for itself. The first two movements of the piece are based on three poems by Sándor Weöres, while the third movement is inspired by a poem by Jayadeva. We can look forward to an unusual work by the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös, who died only last year, and to Alexej Gerassimez, who will also appear as a museum soloist in our other concert series during the 2025/26 season.
Much has been made of Gustav Mahler's Fifth. In contrast to its otherworldly predecessors, it is a 'world symphony', oriented towards this world. Having lost the world of the 'Wunderhorn', it attempts to 'reshape the world from within'. What is undisputed about the Fifth is that, unlike the previous symphonies with vocal writing, it can only be interpreted as a purely instrumental work. The Fifth achieved particular fame, and even popularity, from 1970 onwards through Luchino Visconti's film adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice, in which the contemplative Adagietto of the fourth movement was used to accompany psychological states and traumas.
Incidentally, the percussionists of our orchestra can also shine in Mahler's Fifth, as the percussion certainly plays a leading role in a large orchestra.
(Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.)