Keywords: Symphony Concert
| Franz Welser-Moest | Conductor |
| Wiener Philharmoniker | Orchestra |
| Symphonie Nr. 2 für Streichorchester, op. 30 | Mieczyslaw Weinberg |
| Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, WAB 109 | Anton Bruckner |
These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
Seven years after the light-hearted and ironic Symphonie classique, Prokofiev’s Second Symphony was to be a work “of steel and iron” – and its disjointed, dissonant sounds delivered an intense physical punch. This rarely performed work has been called “brutal,” “painful,” and “unloved.” However, this is certainly not Franz Welser-Möst’s view – he holds it in high esteem. This is similar to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, his “Fate Symphony,” about which Tchaikovsky himself wrote: “After every performance, I become more and more convinced that my last symphony is a failed work. It has turned out to be too colorful, too bulky, too insincere, too long, and generally unappealing. Has the beginning of the end really already arrived?” It has become one of the most popular orchestral works of all time.
Seven years after the light-hearted and ironic Symphonie classique, Prokofiev’s Second Symphony was to be a work “of steel and iron” – and its disjointed, dissonant sounds delivered an intense physical punch. This rarely performed work has been called “brutal,” “painful,” and “unloved.” However, this is certainly not Franz Welser-Möst’s view – he holds it in high esteem. This is similar to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, his “Fate Symphony,” about which Tchaikovsky himself wrote: “After every performance, I become more and more convinced that my last symphony is a failed work. It has turned out to be too colorful, too bulky, too insincere, too long, and generally unappealing. Has the beginning of the end really already arrived?” It has become one of the most popular orchestral works of all time.
Seven years after the light-hearted and ironic Symphonie classique, Prokofiev’s Second Symphony was to be a work “of steel and iron” – and its disjointed, dissonant sounds delivered an intense physical punch. This rarely performed work has been called “brutal,” “painful,” and “unloved.” However, this is certainly not Franz Welser-Möst’s view – he holds it in high esteem. This is similar to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, his “Fate Symphony,” about which Tchaikovsky himself wrote: “After every performance, I become more and more convinced that my last symphony is a failed work. It has turned out to be too colorful, too bulky, too insincere, too long, and generally unappealing. Has the beginning of the end really already arrived?” It has become one of the most popular orchestral works of all time.
Konzert & Nachklang: Nach dem Konzert ist bei uns der Abend noch nicht vorbei. Die Bar bleibt geöffnet, wenn wir Musikerinnen und Musiker des Konzerts im Foyer treffen. Mit Blick auf den Augustusplatz lassen wir den Abend gemeinsam ausklingen.
Musical works of Samuel Barber , Franz Schubert
The “most European” of America’s “Big Five” orchestras shuttles back and forth between the continents under its Principal Conductor Franz Welser-Möst: in America, John Adams takes inspiration from the curiosities of French Provence (“Guide to Strange Places”), while in Paris, Sergei Prokofiev is inspired by the industrial landscapes of America in his mighty Second Symphony.
Karen Gomyo, photo: Gabrielle Revere It is generally accepted that short pieces performed at the beginning of symphonic concerts play the role of a kind of overture (even if they are not overtures in the strict sense of the word). What, then, is the function of the composition Ceci n'est pas une ouverture [This is not an overture], written a dozen years ago by Paweł Szymański for the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Polish Composers' Union? Perhaps similar to French surrealist René Magritte’s famous painting signed Ceci n'est pas une pipe, which depicts nothing but a pipe. Szymanski's thrilling piece conjures up the image of a laboratory technician dissecting classical scores in front of an audience in the anatomical theatre he has built. Sergei Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony, on the other hand, provides a fascinating answer to the question of how Joseph Haydn might have composed if a time machine had transported him to the twentieth century. Another great composer writing at the beginning of the last century took an imaginary journey (this time in space). Ibéria, the middle and longest movement in Claude Debussy’s Images cycle, is regarded as one of the great musical evocations of Spain, although the composer was never fated to visit the country. Max Bruch, who was already old at the time, reportedly found it difficult to come to terms with the end of romanticism. His Violin Concerto No. 1, composed while Johannes Brahms was still alive, was so successful that hardly anyone noticed that the German composer had written two others!
Michał Nesterowicz, photo: Łukasz Rajchert He jokingly says that he loves the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall as much as he hates it. He knew it much better than many Polish artists long before he first came to Warsaw. In order to follow the live broadcasts of the Chopin Competition in his country, he had to get up at 3.00 a.m. He longed to one day stand on the stage where Martha Argerich and Kristian Zimmerman won the competition. That dream of performing in Warsaw came true in 2015, when Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho triumphed in the Chopin Competition. He now returns to the capital’s stage as the soloist in Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major. Brahms used to refer to his powerful work, which posed a considerable challenge for both pianist and orchestra, as a ‘little concerto’. Shortly after the premiere, however, it was more appropriately labelled a ‘symphony with obbligato piano part’. This grand Romantic concerto will be followed by a true Romantic symphony. One of Anton Bruckner’s more popular works, his Fourth Symphony is regarded as one of the finest musical contemplations of nature. Although it does not have a clearly defined literary programme, the composer wove into it the sounds of the morning, the sounds of nature – including the singing of a tit or a mountain echo – and of hunting.
The BRSO’s chamber music programs center on works whose unusual instrumentation has prevented them from being frequently performed in concerts. One such work is pianist Viktor Derevianko’s arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony for piano trio and three percussionists, which creates an exciting timbral and rhythmic alternative to Shostakovich’s original. The Fifteenth Symphony is Shostakovich’s last contribution to the symphonic genre, and is considered to be an eloquent summation of his artistic life. Shostakovich references music of the past with quotations from Rossini and Wagner. The concert will commence with Anton Arensky’s rarely performed Piano Trio, composed in 1894: it is an unjustly neglected masterpiece that is in no way inferior to the compositions of German Romanticism. And Serbian percussionist and composer Nebojša Jovan Živković composed the percussion trio “Trio per uno” to showcase his favorite instruments. This is a program full of discoveries for inquisitive music lovers.
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