Stanislav Kochanovsky Farewell Concerts at NDR Konzerthaus Hannover

Conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky has opened his final concert season leading the NDR Radiophilharmonie with a series of orchestral performances at the NDR Konzerthaus in Hannover, according to official venue and orchestra schedules.

The opening program featured performances by pianist Nikolai Lugansky and solo horn player Theo Wiemes. The concert bill included Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Antonín Dvořák’s Carnival Overture, and Richard Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben.

Orchestra Season Opening Details

The seasonal kickoff events mark the beginning of Kochanovsky’s final tenure as the orchestra’s leader for the 2026/27 concert calendar. Venue documentation from the NDR Konzerthaus highlights the multi-work program as the anchor for the orchestra’s initial autumn appearances in Hannover.

Lugansky took the stage for the Rachmaninoff concerto, a cornerstone of the Romantic piano repertoire. Wiemes stepped forward for prominent horn passages integrated throughout the Strauss and Dvořák compositions.

Concert Program and Repertoire

Dvořák’s 1891 concert overture Carnival opened the evening, establishing an energetic orchestral tone before the transition to solo piano literature. Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto, originally composed in 1891 and later revised by the composer in 1917, provided the central classical showcase for Lugansky.

The second half of the program shifted entirely to Strauss and his large-scale 1898 orchestral work, Ein Heldenleben. The piece requires expanded brass deployment, positioning Wiemes and the section at the forefront of the instrumentation.