Travel with Aston Magna to Hamburg, Germany
October 14 – 20, 2024
Building upon our highly successful trip to Bologna, Italy in October 2018, and Prague in 2019, Aston Magna Travel is pleased to announce our 2024 destination: Hamburg, Germany!
Aston Magna Travel events are part of our ongoing mission to enrich the appreciation of music of the past through a cultural and historical context. Our travel program weaves together discovery and education. Our carefully curated itineraries provide participants the opportunity to explore captivating travel destinations and connect with like-minded fellow travelers. Each itinerary offers private performances and lectures, behind-the-scenes talks and walks, gourmet meals at outstanding restaurants — and palaces — and other unique experiences.
Hamburg has been a center of music for over 500 years: Handel, Telemann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Mahler are among the great musicians to have lived and worked in the city. Then there’s the 185-year-old Hamburg Philharmonic, which also plays for the Hamburg State Opera – Germany’s first public opera house and a bastion of culture since 1678. Fast forward to the 20th century on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, where the Beatles began their rise to international stardom, commemorated today by a plaque at the Starclub honoring the Fab Four.
The 800-year-old harbor is one of the largest ports in the world and the second busiest in Europe. Even in the Middle Ages, Hamburg was an important trading location and one of the leading cities of the Hanseatic League. A maritime spirit infuses the entire city; from architecture to restaurant menus to the cry of seagulls, you always know that water is nearby. Hamburg is also a center for media and publishing and is Germany’s wealthiest city. You’ll find vibrant neighborhoods with multicultural restaurants and an abundance of museums. And, the opportunity to attend a concert at the Elhphilharmonie, a stunning work of art comprised of breathtaking architecture, excellent acoustics, and a unique location.
Join us for an extraordinary week of music, art, history, and architecture in the beautiful and historic city of Hamburg, Germany.
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ACCOMMODATIONS
Fraser Suites Hamburg is a luxurious 5-star hotel in the city center with stylish and fully-furnished rooms and suites. All rooms for the Aston Magna group are Executive Suites (400 sq. ft.) with city views.
Located in the prime Rödingsmarkt neighborhood in the city center, history, culture, and the arts are just steps away. Amenities include: a fully-equipped fitness center and an elegant restaurant and bar that exude 1920s glamour.
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES AND EXCURSIONS
CONCERTS, OPERA AND BALLET PERFORMANCES
Your choice of tickets to 3 performances is included in your program fee. At least one of the concerts will be at the Elbphilharmonie, one of Europe’s best concert halls. Please click here for concert, opera and ballet performance information.
PRIVATE TOUR OF THE ELBPHILHARMONIE CONCERT HALL
The Elbphilharmonie is a total work of art comprised of breathtaking architecture, excellent acoustics and a unique location. A shimmering wave of glass on a solid brick warehouse from the 1960s, and between them a publicly accessible viewing platform that functions as a meeting place and launch pad for discovering the rest of the building. The special materials used in the interior design invite you to touch and feel them, especially the acoustic wall paneling in the Grand Hall and the Recital Hall. As you make your way around the building, there are amazing views to discover at every turn. This is because the Elbphilharmonie – designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron – was built right in the middle of the river Elbe.
VISIT AND PRIVATE TOUR OF THE COMPOSERS QUARTER
Many important composers have a connection to Hamburg and to the city’s rich musical tradition. Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, Johann Adolf Hasse, Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler all were either born or spent time in Hamburg. The reconstructed town houses of wealthy Hamburg merchants, rebuilt in historical style in the Peterstraße, are the ideal locations to recreate the musical history of Hamburg. The Brahms Museum, established in 1971, was followed by the opening of the Telemann Museum and the C.P.E. Bach Museum. The museums use a mixture of traditional exhibits and contemporary media to vividly inform visitors about the life and work of these composers.
PRIVATE GUIDED TOUR OF THE KUNSTHALLE ART MUSEUM
The Hamburger Kunsthalle is one of the largest and most important museums of art in Germany. Its superb permanent collection takes visitors on a journey through seven centuries of art history, from medieval altarpieces to the stars of the contemporary art scene such as Gerhard Richter and Neo Rauch. Among the highlights of the collection are Dutch paintings of the 17th century, including works by Rembrandt and Ruisdael, German painting of the Romantic period with extensive groups of works by Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge, as well as important paintings by Adolph Menzel and Max Liebermann. The outstanding collection of modernist art features works by Max Beckmann, Edvard Munch and the painters of the “Brücke” group.
FULL-DAY EXCURSION TO LÜBECK
Lübeck, the Queen of all the Hanseatic cities, was founded in 1143 as ‘the first western city on the Baltic coast’. A Medieval ambiance and historical and cultural attractions still dominate the wonderful cityscape today and hark back to the city’s glorious past as a Free and Hanseatic city. Surrounded by water, the Old Town with its seven towers and five main churches is testament to 1,000 years of eventful history. As such, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right, as the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classicist buildings, narrow lanes and streets, churches and monasteries, merchants’ houses and fortifications come together to form a remarkable whole. An excellent example of Brick Gothic architecture, the St. Mary’s Church features the world’s tallest brick vault.
VISIT TO ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH with guided tour and organ mini-concert
The first St. Michael’s chapel was built in the early 1600s on the grounds of the cemetery outside the city walls. The church is a landmark of the city and is considered to be one of the finest baroque churches in Northern Germany. The 132-meter-high Baroque spire, totally covered with copper, is a prominent feature of Hamburg’s skyline and has always been a landfall mark for ships sailing up the river Elbe. The St. Michael’s tower warden plays a chorale with his trumpet in each compass direction Monday-Saturday at 10am and 9pm; on Sundays at noon. Johannes Brahms was baptized in this church on May 26, 1833 and was confirmed here at the age of fifteen by Pastor von Ahlsen, who also married Brahms’s parents.
VISIT TO THE HAMBURG STEINWAY PIANO FACTORY
Steinway Piano Factory Tour: During this private tour of the Hamburg Steinway factory, we’ll witness the entire process of creating a piano, starting with the raw wood (walnut, pear, spruce), to the various veneers (mahogany, rosewood, pommele), the delicate work of regulating the action, to the final tuning. Steinway pianos are built by hand by skilled artisans and it is absolutely fascinating to see how the Steinway piano’s incomparable sound is achieved.
Bologna 2018
In 2018, we visited historic Bologna, for a memorable week touring one of Italy’s oldest and quintessentially Italian cities. Fine food and wine, art, music and walking marked this journey.
