ConcertPulse
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider conducts Brahms and Schumann
Konzerthalle Bamberg, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal (Bamberg)
Johann Sebastian Bach knew very well the consoling power that music has. He was virtually constantly composing new pieces – often following suggestions, as in the case of the six-part ricercar, a part of his »Musical Sacrifice«: none other than Frederick the Great inspired him in 1747 to compose this masterful fugue, which we perform in Anton Webern‘s colourful orchestration – before Schumann‘s symphony, in whose music Tchaikovsky felt »the echoes of mysterious processes in the life of our souls«. Schumann often poured his suffering into music, and composing to him was as a way of overcoming a crisis, such as in 1844/45: he had suffered a breakdown, the after-effects of which burdened him for a long time. But then he was suddenly overwhelmed by a creative impulse: »For some days now, it has been drumming and trumpeting within me.« This was the genesis of his second symphony, the result of musical self-therapy in a »dark time« when he initially continued to feel »half-sick« but gradually began to feel »better again«. Indeed, the symphony seems like a desperate struggle against tormenting demons – and swings ambiguously back and forth between melancholic and heroic passages. However, the evil spirits were not to leave Schumann: He died in a mental hospital in 1856 – at the time when Brahms was tinkering with his first piano concerto. The Adagio is thus seen as a soulful prayer for the deceased friend. Otherwise, though, the brilliant work captivates with passionate melodies and great gestures that strive to chase away all gloomy thoughts – completely in the spirit of Schumann‘s optimistic statement: »Sending light into the depths of the human heart – the artist‘s profession!«