Conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen recommends concerts in October
Carsten Seyer-Hansen is chief conductor of Københavns Drengekor, cathedral cantor at Københavns Domkirke, conductor of the vocal group Concert Clemens (Aarhus) and teaches classical choral conducting at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium.
He almost always has rehearsals or concerts himself, so although his mouth waters when he looks at the many concerts in October, he is himself busy on the same days with three concerts of Mozart's Requiem and Culture Night in Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen. The next concert he himself has a ticket for is Stevie Wonder on 18 October, which he is intensely looking forward to hearing again.
Photo: Suste Bonnén
3 October // Syddansk Musikfestival | Intimate concert with Henrik Dam Thomsen
One of the best Danish records I have heard in recent years is Henrik Dam Thomsen's recordings of Bach's suites for cello from 2024. On the recording Thomsen makes Bach's notes flow as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Hearing three of the suites at an intimate concert at Krengerup Gods must be a very special and intense experience.
3 October // Beethoven & Bezuidenhout - Concerto Copenhagen and Kristian Bezuidenhout
The same day, in Symfonisk Sal in Aarhus, you can hear both a late Haydn symphony and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Baroque specialists of Concerto Copenhagen. I would particularly look forward to hearing the South African Bezuidenhout, who has previously guested with the ensemble, play the Beethoven concerto on a fortepiano that sounds as in Beethoven's own time. And in Symfonisk Sal in Aarhus, which has one of the most beautiful acoustics in Denmark.
3 October // Meditation concert - DR Vokalensemblet, conductor Alexander Lüken
DR Vokalensemblet's meditation concerts on my own home turf, Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, are always a sell-out. Twice the same evening, 18 wonderful voices fill one of the capital's most beautiful spaces, which for this concert is also tastefully lit. This time the ensemble is conducted by the young German conductor Alexander Lüken, who in 2024 won the very prestigious Eric Ericson Award. It will be exciting to hear how Vokalensemblet sounds in his hands.
6 October // Mark Padmore, tenor and Jonathan Biss, piano
A couple of weeks ago the outstanding English tenor Ian Bostridge visited Copenhagen in Britten's War Requiem. On 6 October another of the very great English tenors comes to the city. Mogens Dahl has arranged an evening of lieder by Schubert and Schumann. Not the ones you hear most, and that is also why I would not cheat myself out of Jørgen Monrad's concert introduction. Jørgen is a guarantee of lively storytelling with deep insight.
8 October // Mahler's 4th - Odense Symfoniorkester, conductor Pierre Bleuse
It will be exciting to hear Anna Thorvaldsdottir's cello concerto ”Before we fall” for the first time in Denmark. The work has already taken the BBC Proms by storm, and with Odense Symfoniorkester's own chief conductor Pierre Bleuse leading the orchestra, I am convinced that both this work and Mahler's 4th Symphony, which you also get in the same concert, will make the journey to Odense worthwhile.
9 October // Culture Night in Trinitatis Kirke
In my neighbouring church, Trinitatis Kirke by Rundetårn, an incredible amount of good happens under the leadership of Søren Chr. Vestergaard and Kristoffer Thams. Every week you can hear at least one lovely concert with their own ensembles and/or guests, and Culture Night is of course no exception. I would drop by Chr. 4's beautiful church or the Library Hall in Rundetårn and have my ears pampered.
