On 1 June 2026, Bern’s historic Konzertsaal Casino will host an evening as part of the Migros-Kulturprozent-Classics series. The programme will be led by the international festival orchestra Utopia, conducted by Teodor Currentzis. The concert is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the death of Alban Berg, one of the central figures of musical Expressionism.
The soloist of the evening will be Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, who will perform the central work of the programme: Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto To the Memory of an Angel. Berg wrote this tragic score over just a few months in 1935, after the death of the 18-year-old Manon Gropius from polio. She was the daughter of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s widow and Gropius’s first wife. Commissioned by the American violinist Louis Krasner, the concerto is built around a twelve-tone row that also points towards Bach’s chorale Es ist genug from the cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort. In Berg’s hands, the strict language of serial music becomes deeply human: a work about illness, death, and, finally, consolation.
The soloist of the evening will be Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, who will perform the central work of the programme: Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto To the Memory of an Angel. Berg wrote this tragic score over just a few months in 1935, after the death of the 18-year-old Manon Gropius from polio. She was the daughter of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s widow and Gropius’s first wife. Commissioned by the American violinist Louis Krasner, the concerto is built around a twelve-tone row that also points towards Bach’s chorale Es ist genug from the cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort. In Berg’s hands, the strict language of serial music becomes deeply human: a work about illness, death, and, finally, consolation.
The second part of the evening will feature Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major, known as Titan. The symphony begins almost quietly, as if growing out of the sounds of nature. Gradually, these simple musical ideas develop into a powerful and triumphant finale.
Teodor Currentzis is a conductor born in Athens. At different stages of his career, he led the opera and ballet theatres in Novosibirsk and Perm, and since 2012 has served as an artistic director of the International Diaghilev Festival. He has performed at major classical music festivals in Salzburg, Verbier, and Lucerne. Currentzis has received numerous awards, among them the Echo Klassik prize for his Mozart opera cycle — Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Don Giovanni — as well as the title of Conductor of the Year from Opernwelt magazine in 2016. He is the founder of musicAeterna, an orchestra known for its historically informed approach to performance, which has continued to appear successfully on international stages since relocating to St. Petersburg in 2019.
The international Utopia Orchestra was founded by Teodor Currentzis in 2022. It brings together 112 musicians from 28 countries, including Armenia, Germany, Russia, the United States, France, Switzerland, and Japan. The orchestra has no permanent rehearsal base and is funded through its performances, with support from the private foundation Kunst und Kultur DM and European patrons.
Date: 1 June 2026
Venue: Casino Bern, Casinoplatz 1, 3011 Bern, Switzerland
Venue: Casino Bern, Casinoplatz 1, 3011 Bern, Switzerland
Cover photo: Utopia Press Office