Iván Fischer & Kirill Gerstein

The genesis of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto proved to be an arduous affair. Originally Brahms wanted to write a sonata for two pianos, and then a symphony, until the work finally became what it is today: a classic of its genre – and a masterpiece of the concerto literature. For keyboard virtuoso Kirill Gerstein, it is an “incredibly noble, introspective piece with wonderfully lyrical motifs that subtly lie beneath the surface like watermarks.” It was a defining work for Brahms, who was 25 years old at the time. Conductor Iván Fischer juxtaposes it with Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony: a work that enabled Dvořák to finally step out of the shadow of his friend and patron Brahms, and probably one of his most famous and most popular due to its lively cheerfulness, easy-going optimism, and unbroken joie de vivre.

Iván Fischer & Kirill Gerstein

The genesis of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto proved to be an arduous affair. Originally Brahms wanted to write a sonata for two pianos, and then a symphony, until the work finally became what it is today: a classic of its genre – and a masterpiece of the concerto literature. For keyboard virtuoso Kirill Gerstein, it is an “incredibly noble, introspective piece with wonderfully lyrical motifs that subtly lie beneath the surface like watermarks.” It was a defining work for Brahms, who was 25 years old at the time. Conductor Iván Fischer juxtaposes it with Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony: a work that enabled Dvořák to finally step out of the shadow of his friend and patron Brahms, and probably one of his most famous and most popular due to its lively cheerfulness, easy-going optimism, and unbroken joie de vivre.

Chamber Concert

Leoš Janáček once said that he remembered Bedřich Smetana the way a child imagines God. Smetana’s oeuvre was worshipped even by his colleagues Gideon Klein and Antonín Dvořák. Smetana’s patriotism shaped his highly acclaimed Bohemian style; From My Life also intimates his private character, and can be regarded as a musical autobiography describing a fateful event in 1874: “I am completely deaf and can hear nothing at all,” Smetana noted in his diary. He therefore deliberately wrote a work for just four instruments, “as though in a small friendly circle they are discussing among themselves what so obviously troubles me. Nothing more.”

»EINE REISE DURCH BÖHMEN«

Sir Simon Rattle

In 1982, Rafael Kubelík recorded Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances with the BRSO in Munich’s Herkulessaal. This is one of the reasons that this concert serves as Sir Simon Rattle’s homage to the former chief conductor. It begins with the colorful and somewhat gentler second series of Dvořák’s folk-inspired composition, in which melancholy and poetic nuances mingle with the world of exuberant dance. Violist Timothy Ridout then makes his BRSO debut in the extensively lyrical passages of Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto. And finally, the brass gets has a chance to shine: nine trumpets (sounding as if there were at least ninety) dominate Janáček’s Sinfonietta – a work that would have surely become popular even without its famous celebratory fanfare. But it wouldn’t take your breath away and have such an overwhelming impact otherwise.

Sir Simon Rattle

In 1982, Rafael Kubelík recorded Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances with the BRSO in Munich’s Herkulessaal. This is one of the reasons that this concert serves as Sir Simon Rattle’s homage to the former chief conductor. It begins with the colorful and somewhat gentler second series of Dvořák’s folk-inspired composition, in which melancholy and poetic nuances mingle with the world of exuberant dance. Violist Timothy Ridout then makes his BRSO debut in the extensively lyrical passages of Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto. And finally, the brass gets has a chance to shine: nine trumpets (sounding as if there were at least ninety) dominate Janáček’s Sinfonietta – a work that would have surely become popular even without its famous celebratory fanfare. But it wouldn’t take your breath away and have such an overwhelming impact otherwise.

NotenTexte | “Die kleine Hexe”

NotenTexte | “Die kleine Hexe”

NotenTexte | “Die kleine Hexe”

NotenTexte | “Die kleine Hexe”

NotenTexte | “Die kleine Hexe”

NotenTexte | “Die kleine Hexe”

Thomas Søndergård & Augustin Hadelich

The barely ten-minute “Legend for Orchestra” about the guardian of the Finnish realm of the dead, The Swan of Tuonela, is one of Jean Sibelius’ best-known compositions and a showpiece for English horn – it is entrusted with the elegiac song with which the swan attracts the souls of the deceased. Afterwards, violinist Augustin Hadelich will interpret Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. The work, composed thirty years ago, captivates the listener with its iridescent, shimmering soundscapes and rhythmically motoric pulse. Furthermore the concert will conclude with Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony, his formidable response to Brahms’ Third. With this symphony, the Czech composer wanted to set “a world in motion”. The work was written for London. Long before he achieved the recognition he deserved on the continent, Dvořák was already held in high regard by the English audiences of the time.

Thomas Søndergård & Augustin Hadelich

The barely ten-minute “Legend for Orchestra” about the guardian of the Finnish realm of the dead, The Swan of Tuonela, is one of Jean Sibelius’ best-known compositions and a showpiece for English horn – it is entrusted with the elegiac song with which the swan attracts the souls of the deceased. Afterwards, violinist Augustin Hadelich will interpret Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. The work, composed thirty years ago, captivates the listener with its iridescent, shimmering soundscapes and rhythmically motoric pulse. Furthermore the concert will conclude with Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony, his formidable response to Brahms’ Third. With this symphony, the Czech composer wanted to set “a world in motion”. The work was written for London. Long before he achieved the recognition he deserved on the continent, Dvořák was already held in high regard by the English audiences of the time.

Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša & Julia Fischer

Daniel Harding & Kirill Gerstein

Daniel Harding & Kirill Gerstein

Concert with Friends

Sir Simon Rattle & Magdalena Kožená & Friends

Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kožená will give a quite unusual chamber recital together with friends from London and Berlin – especially for BRSO subscribers. In some of the songs Sir Simon will play the piano, but others are accompanied by a string quartet or wind ensemble, adding choice colours to Magdalena Kožená’s mezzo. Owing to the unusual instrumentation, the chosen works are rarely heard in the concert hall and display a vivid panorama of European art song. A rare highlight!

Sir Antonio Pappano & Yuja Wang

“I have an idea for a new work, which has no programme, but which will express what we understand by zest for life or expressions of life … where one would simply say, ’This is life’.” Thus Carl Nielsen wrote of his Fourth Symphony, which he called “The Inextinguishable”. Composed between 1914 and 1916, it is considered to be a milestone in Scandinavian music, reflecting the events of the Great War with the dramatic timpani duel in the final movement. A life in harmony and the violence of nature are likewise synonymous with Desdemona and Othello in Antonín Dvořák ’s Othello Overture. Here, too, the timpani becomes a seismograph of the emotions. Between these two “life works”, conductor Antonio Pappano has placed Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, played by Yuja Wang. This Chinese pianist will pound the keys in the highly demanding solo part while caressing the delicate hues with ingratiating elegance.

Sir Antonio Pappano & Yuja Wang

“I have an idea for a new work, which has no programme, but which will express what we understand by zest for life or expressions of life … where one would simply say, ’This is life’.” Thus Carl Nielsen wrote of his Fourth Symphony, which he called “The Inextinguishable”. Composed between 1914 and 1916, it is considered to be a milestone in Scandinavian music, reflecting the events of the Great War with the dramatic timpani duel in the final movement. A life in harmony and the violence of nature are likewise synonymous with Desdemona and Othello in Antonín Dvořák ’s Othello Overture. Here, too, the timpani becomes a seismograph of the emotions. Between these two “life works”, conductor Antonio Pappano has placed Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, played by Yuja Wang. This Chinese pianist will pound the keys in the highly demanding solo part while caressing the delicate hues with ingratiating elegance.

Sir Antonio Pappano & Yuja Wang

“I have an idea for a new work, which has no programme, but which will express what we understand by zest for life or expressions of life … where one would simply say, ’This is life’.” Thus Carl Nielsen wrote of his Fourth Symphony, which he called “The Inextinguishable”. Composed between 1914 and 1916, it is considered to be a milestone in Scandinavian music, reflecting the events of the Great War with the dramatic timpani duel in the final movement. A life in harmony and the violence of nature are likewise synonymous with Desdemona and Othello in Antonín Dvořák ’s Othello Overture. Here, too, the timpani becomes a seismograph of the emotions. Between these two “life works”, conductor Antonio Pappano has placed Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, played by Yuja Wang. This Chinese pianist will pound the keys in the highly demanding solo part while caressing the delicate hues with ingratiating elegance.

Manfred Honeck & Igor Levit

“An orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”: thus Robert Schumann described the piano playing of Johannes Brahms. Now Igor Levit, last season’s artist-in-residence, returns to the BRSO with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, the very work with which the composer forged his path from chamber music to the symphony. Here the “voices” of the solo instrument and the orchestra blend into an intensive dialogue. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony radiates the relaxed and cheerful holiday mood of the little village of Vysoká. “The melodies just drop into my lap”, the composer enthused, and indeed the symphony seems to “emerge directly from Bohemia’s natural surroundings and the Czech people”, to quote Dvořák’s enraptured biographer Otakar šourek. With this symphony Manfred Honeck conducts one of Dvořák’s most popular works, revealing him to be a Czech national composer to the very core.

Manfred Honeck & Igor Levit

“An orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”: thus Robert Schumann described the piano playing of Johannes Brahms. Now Igor Levit, last season’s artist-in-residence, returns to the BRSO with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, the very work with which the composer forged his path from chamber music to the symphony. Here the “voices” of the solo instrument and the orchestra blend into an intensive dialogue. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony radiates the relaxed and cheerful holiday mood of the little village of Vysoká. “The melodies just drop into my lap”, the composer enthused, and indeed the symphony seems to “emerge directly from Bohemia’s natural surroundings and the Czech people”, to quote Dvořák’s enraptured biographer Otakar šourek. With this symphony Manfred Honeck conducts one of Dvořák’s most popular works, revealing him to be a Czech national composer to the very core.