Michael Tilson Thomas & Julia Fischer

Michael Tilson Thomas & Julia Fischer

Beethoven’s only violin concerto is one of the best-known works of its genre and the most significant concerto in the violin repertoire altogether. Time and again artists undertake new interpretative approaches to this masterpiece. One such artist is the Munich violinist Julia Fischer, the winner of many coveted prizes, including the Beethoven Ring. The last time she stood on the Gasteig concert stage with the BRSO was in 2009, when she played Prokofiev’s First Concerto under Mariss Jansons. Besides Beethoven, the American conductor-composer Michael Tilson Thomas will also conduct Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony. Leonard Bernstein, who gave the work its European première, maintained that “the symphony has become an American monument, like the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial”, and called it “the greatest American symphony ever written”.

Jakub Hrůša & Julia Fischer

Aristotle once said that "The beginning is half of the whole." This concert will present a brand-new creation by Johannes X. Schachtner, who was born in 1985 into a Bavarian family of musicians. This young composer already has an extensive catalogue of works to his credit and collaborates with international artists such as the acclaimed violinist Julia Fischer, for whom the violin concerto we commissioned was written. The concerto refers explicitly to our roots in Prague, nodding to the Bohemian musical tradition that we have continued to cultivate under our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša. The forms adopted by Czech composers such as Dvořák and Janáček have inspired Schachtner to write a sequence of several connected movements rather than employ the traditional classical-romantic solo concerto structure. Jazz influences can be heard in the concerto, too – we can’t wait for its premiere! Dvořák's most famous contribution to the symphonic genre is marked by a similar sense of a new beginning: his cultural mission for his sojourn in the "New World" was to create an American national music – for in contrast to Europe with its centuries-long musical tradition, there had been no major developments in the field of classical music in the “land of unlimited possibilities”.

Iván Fischer

A Beethoven festival with Iván Fischer! This Hungarian conductor has acquired international fame for his readings of the classical-romantic repertoire and makes guest appearances with all the great orchestras. His BRSO programme features the Eighth Symphony, full of merriment and understated humour, and the Fifth, where Fate knocks at the door and the almost martial finale seems to find the composer “grabbing destiny by the throat”. Between these two mutually contradictory masterpieces is the revenge aria Ah! Perfido!, to words by Pietro Metastasio. The soprano is Christiane Karg.

Iván Fischer

A Beethoven festival with Iván Fischer! This Hungarian conductor has acquired international fame for his readings of the classical-romantic repertoire and makes guest appearances with all the great orchestras. His BRSO programme features the Eighth Symphony, full of merriment and understated humour, and the Fifth, where Fate knocks at the door and the almost martial finale seems to find the composer “grabbing destiny by the throat”. Between these two mutually contradictory masterpieces is the revenge aria Ah! Perfido!, to words by Pietro Metastasio. The soprano is Christiane Karg.

Iván Fischer

They were born in the same year (1860), enrolled at Vienna Conservatory at the same time and temporarily lived in the same flat: Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf. Then their paths led them in completely different directions: Mahler advanced to become the most successful conductor and greatest symphonist of his era, while Wolf, having failed in other genres, devoted his creative energy to the art song, in which field he left behind a uniquely vibrant oeuvre. As was common in his day, Wolf orchestrated several of his own lieder. Our programme reunites these two disparate contemporaries and shows what they composed at the same time: Mahler’s First and Wolf’s settings of Goethe and Mörike were all written around the year 1888.

Iván Fischer

They were born in the same year (1860), enrolled at Vienna Conservatory at the same time and temporarily lived in the same flat: Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf. Then their paths led them in completely different directions: Mahler advanced to become the most successful conductor and greatest symphonist of his era, while Wolf, having failed in other genres, devoted his creative energy to the art song, in which field he left behind a uniquely vibrant oeuvre. As was common in his day, Wolf orchestrated several of his own lieder. Our programme reunites these two disparate contemporaries and shows what they composed at the same time: Mahler’s First and Wolf’s settings of Goethe and Mörike were all written around the year 1888.

Manfed Honeck & Julia Bullock

Manfed Honeck & Julia Bullock

Manfed Honeck & Julia Bullock

Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša & Julia Fischer