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This season Tabea Zimmermann, the BRSO’s artist-in-residence, will present an entire series of special concertos for her instrument, the viola. One is William Walton’s Viola Concerto, composed for Lionel Tertis in 1928-29 at the suggestion of the English conductor Thomas Beecham. Tertis, however, felt unequal to its severe demands, and the première was entrusted to Paul Hindemith, a violist who had already written several pieces for his own use. This rarely heard composition will now be played by one of the supreme violists of our time, forming an exciting foil to Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra of 1943. The conductor is the seasoned Bartók specialist Iván Fischer.
This season Tabea Zimmermann, the BRSO’s artist-in-residence, will present an entire series of special concertos for her instrument, the viola. One is William Walton’s Viola Concerto, composed for Lionel Tertis in 1928-29 at the suggestion of the English conductor Thomas Beecham. Tertis, however, felt unequal to its severe demands, and the première was entrusted to Paul Hindemith, a violist who had already written several pieces for his own use. This rarely heard composition will now be played by one of the supreme violists of our time, forming an exciting foil to Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra of 1943. The conductor is the seasoned Bartók specialist Iván Fischer.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony, has already performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the BRSO. Now his programme includes Brahms’s Double Concerto. The special form of a concerto for multiple soloists seems to be at once a challenge and a matter close to his heart. Violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott are the protagonists in Brahms’s “work of reconciliation”. Originally conceived as a cello concerto, Brahms later gave his Op. 102 a part for solo violin, hoping it would help him to re-establish contact with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim. For years the two men had fallen out after Brahms took sides with Joachim’s wife during a marital rift. The concerto was meant to revive the deep friendship the two men had enjoyed for many years. Orozco-Estrada will also conduct Bartók’s suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (1928) and Blacher’s Paganini Variations (1947).
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony, has already performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the BRSO. Now his programme includes Brahms’s Double Concerto. The special form of a concerto for multiple soloists seems to be at once a challenge and a matter close to his heart. Violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott are the protagonists in Brahms’s “work of reconciliation”. Originally conceived as a cello concerto, Brahms later gave his Op. 102 a part for solo violin, hoping it would help him to re-establish contact with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim. For years the two men had fallen out after Brahms took sides with Joachim’s wife during a marital rift. The concerto was meant to revive the deep friendship the two men had enjoyed for many years. Orozco-Estrada will also conduct Bartók’s suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (1928) and Blacher’s Paganini Variations (1947).
A programme with three works requiring solo singers is certainly something special – so that Frank Peter Zimmermann has brought along two pieces never heard before in the concerts of the BRSO: Bartók’s roughly ten-minute Rhapsody No. 2 for violin and orchestra (1928) and Martinů’s Suite concertante (1944), a four-movement violin concerto in everything but name. Both works thrive on the tension between original eastern European folk melodies, modern sonic garb and the unique individual styles of their respective creators. A folk inflection of a quite different kind depicts the “heavenly joys” that soprano Anna Lucia Richter invokes in the final movement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. But the childlike naivety of this idyll openly displays its fractures, and perhaps no Mahler symphony is as enigmatic as his purportedly “simple” Fourth. Standing at the rostrum is the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, now in his second appearance with the BRSO following his début of February 2020.
A programme with three works requiring solo singers is certainly something special – so that Frank Peter Zimmermann has brought along two pieces never heard before in the concerts of the BRSO: Bartók’s roughly ten-minute Rhapsody No. 2 for violin and orchestra (1928) and Martinů’s Suite concertante (1944), a four-movement violin concerto in everything but name. Both works thrive on the tension between original eastern European folk melodies, modern sonic garb and the unique individual styles of their respective creators. A folk inflection of a quite different kind depicts the “heavenly joys” that soprano Anna Lucia Richter invokes in the final movement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. But the childlike naivety of this idyll openly displays its fractures, and perhaps no Mahler symphony is as enigmatic as his purportedly “simple” Fourth. Standing at the rostrum is the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, now in his second appearance with the BRSO following his début of February 2020.
Igor Levit will continue his residency at the BRSO with Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” Piano Concerto (K 271). To the present day it remains incomprehensible how the 21-year-old Mozart, in his final Salzburg concerto, could indulge his wonted jeu d’esprit while plumbing such precocious spiritual depths as in the tragic C minor slow movement. Originally Yannick Nézet-Séguin was meant to stand at the helm until prevented from travelling by covid regulations. His place will be taken by the 24-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who advanced this season to become principal conductor of the Oslo Symphony, an orchestra shaped by Mariss Jansons. Framing the “Jeunehomme” Concerto will be two string studies composed for Paul Sacher and his Basle Chamber Orchestra: Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in D and the popular Divertimento by Béla Bartók.
Igor Levit will continue his residency at the BRSO with Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” Piano Concerto (K 271). To the present day it remains incomprehensible how the 21-year-old Mozart, in his final Salzburg concerto, could indulge his wonted jeu d’esprit while plumbing such precocious spiritual depths as in the tragic C minor slow movement. Originally Yannick Nézet-Séguin was meant to stand at the helm until prevented from travelling by covid regulations. His place will be taken by the 24-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who advanced this season to become principal conductor of the Oslo Symphony, an orchestra shaped by Mariss Jansons. Framing the “Jeunehomme” Concerto will be two string studies composed for Paul Sacher and his Basle Chamber Orchestra: Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in D and the popular Divertimento by Béla Bartók.
Igor Levit will continue his residency at the BRSO with Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” Piano Concerto (K 271). To the present day it remains incomprehensible how the 21-year-old Mozart, in his final Salzburg concerto, could indulge his wonted jeu d’esprit while plumbing such precocious spiritual depths as in the tragic C minor slow movement. Originally Yannick Nézet-Séguin was meant to stand at the helm until prevented from travelling by covid regulations. His place will be taken by the 24-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who advanced this season to become principal conductor of the Oslo Symphony, an orchestra shaped by Mariss Jansons. Framing the “Jeunehomme” Concerto will be two string studies composed for Paul Sacher and his Basle Chamber Orchestra: Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in D and the popular Divertimento by Béla Bartók.