David Afkham & Christian Tetzlaff

David Afkham & Christian Tetzlaff

This concert promises two exciting novelties: David Afkham will be the third conductor making his debut this season, and a symphony by Franz Schmidt will be performed for the first time ever in a BRSO concert. Afkham, currently Chief Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra, trained as a conductor with the renowned Bernard Haitink, who was also closely associated with the BRSO – which makes for a fitting debut. Franz Schmidt is one of the Viennese fin-de-siècle composers who is unjustly neglected nowdays. Schmidt himself described the Fourth Symphony, written in 1932-1933 after the death of his 30-year-old daughter in childbirth, as a “requiem.” His epic, late-Romantic style results in deeply-felt music imbued with formal finesse and a tragic, poignant character. Berg’s Violin Concerto, written in 1935, provides the perfect companion piece, since it is also a “requiem” for someone who departed early from this world: Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler’s daughter, who died when she was only 18 years old.

David Afkham & Christian Tetzlaff

Christian Tetzlaff / Kammerakademie Potsdam / Antonello Manacorda

»I don’t think it’s a symphony of destiny, but rather Beethoven shows us the way to a better world in the course of the symphony.« Antonello Manacorda and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, which has grown into an outstanding ensemble under his direction, surprised audiences with this view of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony last year when their recording caused a furore in the classical music scene. Rarely has so much fresh wind blown through what is probably the most famous sequence of notes in music history – a »Ta-da-da-daaaa« full of zest for action. In top violinist Christian Tetzlaff, the Kammerakademie Potsdam has found a brother in spirit: »He is someone who is always curious!« says the classical music column in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Undoubtedly an outstanding quality for a musician who has mastered the art of making the familiar sound new and unheard of again and again.