On November 3, the Houston Symphony Orchestra presents a concert by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra at Houston’s Jones Hall, launching the German orchestra’s U.S. tour. The performance commemorates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the October 1989 celebrations in Leipzig following the peaceful end of the confrontation between that city’s secret police and protesters. Riccardo Chailly will lead the Gewandhaus Orchestra in a program devoted to Mendelssohn, who served as the Gewandhaus music director from 1835 to 1843. Repertoire will include Symphony No. 5 (“Reformation”), the Hebrides Overture, and the Violin Concerto, with soloist Nikolaj Znaider. Houston and Leipzig, Germany have been sister cities since 1993, and Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung will be in attendance, along with Houston Mayor Annise D. Parker and other dignitaries. On November 2, Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy hosted a short performance by musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, screened an excerpt from the film The Miracle of Leipzig, and a discussion of the end of the Cold War. “On the heels of our centennial season, the Houston Symphony is honored to present our sister symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, on this historic occasion,” said Mark Hanson, the Houston Symphony’s executive director and CEO.
Posted November 3, 2014
Pictured: Each year on October 9 the people of Leipzig gather to commemorate October 9, 1989, when more than 70,000 people staged a peaceful government protest on Leipzig’s inner ring road.
