Dear members of our audiences,

I look forward to the new season of Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester’s concerts with great anticipation, excitement and impatience. We invite you to unearth amazing discoveries, starting with two unorthodox present day composers, Jörg Widmann and Daniel Schnyder, whose new music sounds quite unlike that which one would expect to hear in a »Museum«. Benjamin Britten’s piano concerto and Prokofiev’s 4th symphony are also works one does not often get the chance of hearing in a concert hall. And Brahms' 5th? - honorary title of Arnold Schönberg’s orchestral version of Brahms' Piano Quartet op.25, composed in his youth and crowned with a fruious alla-Zingares-Finale. Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust are being performed in this series for the very first time in April 2013 – this has been made possible by support from the Kulturfond Frankfurt RheinMain. Christian Gerhaher sings the title role: a major event in the Goethe city of Frankfurt, and one I look forward to very much.
   Another special project takes place in November 2012. The Frankfurt High School for Music and the Performing Arts and Frankfurt Opern-und Museumsorchester join forces to perform Mahler Symphony No.3, with members of both orchestras sharing desks: this is certainly going to be an unforgettable experience for everyone taking part, and the audience as well!
   We greet artists, famous the world over, appearing with us as guests this season: the pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja, Tzimon Barto and Steven Osborne, violinists Nora Chastain and Frank Peter Zimmermann, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, a public’s darling, and not only in Frankfurt, his home town. We welcome back Christopher Hogwood, who conducts Haydn, Mendelssohn and Elgar. Dmitrij Kitajenko brings us closer to works by his Russian country fellows Mussorgsky and Prokofiev. Michael Sanderling, Martyn Brabbins and Alexander Liebreich guarantee new and unusual perspectives on music by Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner and Schostakovitch.
   All the ingredients necessary to entice you to join us in this exciting season – come and feel enriched and inspired.

with best wishes,

Sebastian Weigle