Beyond Time: The Jena Philharmonic Opens Musical Spaces about Life and Death

Beyond Time: A Symphony Concert about Life, Death, and Eternity

The Jena Philharmonic dedicates its third Thursday concert of the season to one of humanity's oldest questions: What does it mean to engage musically with death? Under the direction of Simon Gaudenz, a concert evening will be created on October 29, 2026, at the Volkshaus Jena, oscillating between stirring drama, sacred immersion, and floating sound poetry.

Schubert's Unfinished as a Musical Framework

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 7 in B minor D 759, known as the Unfinished, opens and closes the program. The first movement Allegro moderato leads into the evening with dark intensity, while the concluding Andante con moto unfolds an exalted, almost timeless atmosphere. The recurring sound world gives the concert a broadly stretched dramatic form.

Bach's Chorale: Silence Between Extremes

Between the symphonic cornerstones, Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder provides a meditative pause. The Jena Madrigal Choir presents the excerpt from the sacred cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen a cappella. Reduced sonorities, precise synchronization, and the immediate effect of the human choir create a moment of concentrated tranquility.

Mussorgsky and Death with Its Own Voice

In Modest Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, Death itself emerges as a musical figure. Andreas Bauer Kanabas takes the bass part, while the orchestral version by Dmitri Shostakovich transfers the expressive force of the song cycle into a grand symphonic soundscape. Between dramatic sound, sharply defined orchestration, and vocal stage presence, an urgent sound portrait arises without embellishment.

Messiaen's Radiant Disturbance

Olivier Messiaen's Le Tombeau resplendissant sets a radical contrast. Radiant sound colors, eruptive rhythms, and a nervous energy transform the orchestra into a vibrating resonance space. The work combines grief and departure and leads the musical engagement with death into a modern, color-intensive sound language.

Immortal Bach: Time Becomes Sound

Knut Nystedt's Immortal Bach takes Bach's chorale Komm, süßer Tod as a starting point. Through different tempos and temporal shifts, the familiar chorale melody dissolves into a floating, polyphonic sound event. The Jena Madrigal Choir makes audible how musical time can stretch, overlap, and almost dematerialize.

A Concert Experience Between Precision and Emotion

Simon Gaudenz leads the Jena Philharmonic through a program that intertwines different epochs and perspectives. The acoustic dramaturgy ranges from Schubert and Bach to Mussorgsky and Shostakovich, up to Messiaen and Nystedt. Here, orchestral richness, vocal directness, and chamber musical concentration come together.

Conclusion: The symphony concert Beyond Time promises an intense evening at the Volkshaus Jena: with rich orchestral colors, deeply moving choral music, and an unusual musical approach to the final things. Those who want to experience classical music as a vibrant, contemporary stage performance will find a concert with lasting impact here.

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Sources:

• JenaKultur – Symphony Concert Beyond Time
• Volkshaus Jena – Event Calendar
• MVP – Thursday Concert No. 3
• Jenaer Philharmonie – Ticket Prices