Bass Clef Monologues
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| free admission with Humboldt Forum Ticket |
| A Humboldt Forum ticket is required for this visit, which also grants you access to all exhibitions in the building before and after your visit. Free admission for children and young people up to age 19; standard discounts apply. Tickets are available online or at the ticket counters in the foyer. |
| For people of all ages |
| German |
| Humboldt Lab, 1st floor |
| Part of: Micro Concerts of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin |
Gernot Adrion:
Sonata for Violoncello Solo op. 2 (1991)
Prodos (2021), Monologue for bass clarinet solo op. 12 (world premiere)
Höret die Stimme (2024) for double bass solo op. 15 (world premiere)
Three solo works, two of which are world premieres: the season’s final micro-concert features three pieces by Gernot Adrion, who works full-time as deputy principal violist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has written them specifically for three of his orchestral colleagues. All three are performed on low-pitched instruments: cello, bass clarinet and double bass.
The Sonata for Cello consists of three movements, with a musical meditation in the middle that captures the listener’s attention. In the finale, two worlds clash: one quiet, restlessly urgent, somewhat reminiscent of the film score for “Jaws” and one jagged and sparkling, based on a Fibonacci sequence. This sequence was originally devised by the Italian mathematician of the same name to describe the growth of a family of rabbits. The sequence usually begins with 0 and 1 or 1 and 1, with each subsequent number being the sum of the two preceding ones: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …
The work for bass clarinet is entitled “Prodos”. The Greek word means “progress” and reflects “my personal engagement with contemporary music … my attitude towards it is expressed relatively clearly in the performance instructions ‘resignierend’ (German: with resignation) and ‘morendo’ (Italian: dying) …” (Gernot Adrion)
Gernot Adrion calls “dodecatonicity” a compositional principle he has developed, in which a free tonality is superimposed on a fixed root note in parallel with a twelve-tone row. “In ‘Höret die Stimme’ for solo double bass, we find a slow introduction featuring a twelve-tone row that nevertheless sounds like a theme in E minor. … The title ‘Höret die Stimme’ refers to a novel by Franz Werfel: in this work we hear hundreds of sighs, like a lament. This reminds me of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, who acts like a lone voice crying in the wilderness, here in the role of a solitary double bassist.” (Gernot Adrion)
Participants
Gernot Adrion has been associate principal violist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1996.
He studied at the Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg under Hans Kohlhase until 1995 and was a prize winner in various competitions, including the national “Jugend musiziert” competition, the IHK competition, the Dr. Drexel competition in Nuremberg, and the German Conservatory Competition in Darmstadt.
In addition to his pedagogical work as a mentor at the RSB Orchestra Academy, he has a special passion for chamber music. Since 2006, he has collaborated regularly with Susanne Herzog and Hans-Jakob Eschenburg in the Gideon Klein Trio, and since 2012 in a duo with pianist Yuki Inagawa.
Gernot Adrion plays a viola by Petrus Gaggini.
Jörg Breuninger has been a member of the RSB since 1996.
He earned his diploma from the Karlsruhe University of Music (under Annemarie Dengler-Speermann) and in Cologne (under Claus Kanngiesser). He furthered his training through master classes with Boris Pergamenschikoff, Wolfgang Boettcher, and Valentin Berlinski (“Borodin Quartet”).
The cellist has won prizes at the national “Jugend musiziert” competition, the BDI competition, and the International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach as part of a string trio with his brothers, and he reached the finals of the “Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.” He has performed in many chamber music ensembles, such as the “Epos String Quartet,” and also arranges pieces for four cellos, which he performs together with the ensemble “Just four Cellos.”
As a chamber musician, he regularly performs in RSB concerts.
Christoph Korn began playing the recorder at the age of four; at ten, he switched to the clarinet and took lessons at the Chemnitz Music School. At the age of 13, he enrolled at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Zwickau and subsequently went on to study at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden.
Starting in 1999, Christoph Korn played in various orchestras, including as a substitute with the Dresden Philharmonic. In addition to the clarinet, he increasingly focused on the bass clarinet and began his career as a professional musician playing this instrument. He passed the audition for the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra on his first try and became its new principal bass clarinetist in 2002.
Christoph Korn is active as a chamber musician in various ensembles, performs regularly as a soloist, and frequently serves as a substitute with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. As an orchestral and chamber musician, Christoph Korn has toured throughout Europe and internationally.
During the 2018–2019 season, Christoph Korn served as principal bass clarinetist of the Sächsische Staatskapelle and returned to the RSB in the same role for the 2019–2020 season.
Since the 2020/2021 winter semester, he has held a teaching position at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin for bass clarinet.
Marvin Wagner began taking his first double bass lessons with Erich Hehenberger at the age of eight. After graduating from high school in 2012, he began his musical studies with Prof. Dorin Marc. During his training, he became a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. In 2017, he continued his studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin under Prof. Janne Saksala and furthered his training through masterclasses with Prof. Paradzik and Prof. McTier.
In 2014, Marvin Wagner was awarded first prize at the 8th International Johann Matthias Sperger Competition for Double Bass. As a soloist, he has performed with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic, the West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Marienbad, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, and the Rheinische Philharmonie State Orchestra, among others. He has received multiple scholarships from the Peter Pirazzi Foundation and the German National Academic Foundation.
In addition to his role as principal double bassist of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, mentor to the double bass academy students, and assistant to Prof. Janne Saksala at the Berlin University of the Arts, he regularly performs as a guest principal bassist with renowned orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, and the Deutsche Oper. In the winter semester of 2026/27, Marvin Wagner was appointed university professor of double bass at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
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