Keywords: Symphony Concert
| Marie Jacquot | Conductor |
| Christian Tetzlaff | Violin |
| Wiener Symphoniker |
| Kristine Tjøgersen | "Between Trees" for Orchestra |
| Jean Sibelius | Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in d minor op. 47 |
| Ludwig van Beethoven | Symphony No. 8 in F major op. 93 |
These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
It was composed at the beginning of the last century in the hot, sunny regions of Italy, but the triumphant success of Jean Sibelius' Second Symphony was celebrated in his homeland of Finland in the far north. This was also because his countrymen heard in it a kind of manifesto against the tsarist yoke. To this day, especially the slow movement is a kind of national anthem for the Finns, and the finale has something "magical that puts us in ecstasy like the shaman's magic drum," as a compatriot of Sibelius wrote. We have combined this symphony with a work that was created about 100 years earlier and still breathes a little of Mozart's spirit. In his First Piano Concerto, Beethoven had already developed his own means, for example, he used clarinets, trumpets, and timpani for the first time ever in a piano concerto. Boris Giltburg presents himself with this masterpiece for the first time as our Artist in Residence.
Between Trees was the international breakthrough for the composer Kristine Tjøgersen (b. 1982) from Oslo. The Norwegian Radio Orchestra premiered the orchestral piece and was selected as “most outstanding work” at the prestigious award ceremony International Rostrum of Composers. Among the trees in the forest, “it teems with roots connected in a network of fungal threads,” the composer says. “These threads connect trees and plants so that they can communicate - like the forest’s own internet.” The piece is rich in unusual instrument sounds and techniques. She continues: “Fungal threads grow in pulses, so there is a rhythmically pulsating life unfolding beneath our feet. The opening is therefore buoyant and airy, like communicating trees. We then move over the ground, and hear flapping wings and various birds.”When the Russian Revolution was a fact in 1917, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) left the eye of the storm, Petrograd (today’s St. Petersburg), and traveled to the far east, with a steam boat on the rivers Volga and kama towards the Ural Mountains. In these calm surroundings, he wrote his most famous work. There is little in the Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major that bears witness to the troubled times - perhaps excluding the wild second movement. The first and third movement contains some of Prokofiev’s most dreamy, romantic music, and some of his most memorable melodies.“I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have accomplished here, I will never achieve again,” Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) said about his Symphony No. 3 in C minor, the “Organ Symphony”, which premiered in London in 1886. This would be his last symphony and one of his most famous pieces.After growing up as a child prodigy on the piano, Saint-Saëns got the most prestigious organist job in France, at the La Madeleine church in Paris. The composer Franz Liszt heard him play there and called him “the world’s best organist”. Symphony No. 3 culminates in a powerful ending with piano and organ.
“It’s lush, it’s romantic, it has conflict and lightness. There is a physicality to this piece that’s really fun.” This is how tonight’s soloist Hilary Hahn described Antonín Dvořáks Violin Concerto when she recorded the piece in 2022. Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) played the violin, and worked as an orchestral violist for ten years before his breakthrough as a composer. The Violin Concerto in A minor from 1883 is, like much of Dvořák’s music, strongly influenced by Czech musical heritage, with lively melodies and strong contrasts. The concert opens with the short but eventful orchestral piece Pan and Ekho from 1906 by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). The piece is based on Greek mythology and the wild god Pan’s romantic advances towards the unhappy nymph Ekho, who can only repeat what others say.Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) started working on his Symphony No. 7 during a refreshing stay in the spa town of Teplitz. He conducted the symphony premiere in 1813 at a charity concert for wounded soldiers who had returned from the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon’s failed crusade toward Russia, the tides had turned. Symphony No. 7 was premiered along with a piece celebrating the Battle of Vitoria. The concert hit the zeitgeist perfectly and was a huge success. Beethoven referred to the symphony as one of his best works. The symphony opens with a slow, suggestive introduction. The melancholic second movement Allegretto is the symphony’s most famous – at the first concerts it was cheered as an encore. The last movement is perhaps the most thrilling music Beethoven wrote.
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