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It is a popular romantic theme: the fine line between genius and madness. In Beethoven’s case, all one needs to do is look at the portrait of the agitated artist with tangled hair and crazy eyes, who jots his notes down on paper in a manic creative frenzy and in the face of impending deafness. Wolf was hospitalized twice – and died in the clinic. When Schumann was admitted to Endenich, “melancholy with delusion” was noted as a diagnosis in the admission book. And the Italian Renaissance prince Carlo Gesualdo was not only a gifted composer, but very probably also a murderer. In the chromatic descent at the end of his madrigal, we seem to hear the agony of a guilty man tormented by remorse. The result? Insanely brilliant music!
The BRSO welcomes Maxim Emelyanychev, one of the most fascinating talents of the young generation of conductors, to its podium for the first time. Trained by the legendary Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Emelyanychev began his conducting career in his native Russia, while at the same time attracting attention as an extraordinary pianist – with CD recordings of Mozart sonatas, for example, or playing the fortepiano in Teodor Currentzis’ Da Ponte cycle. Since 2013 he has led the highly successful Italian Baroque ensemble Il pomo d’oro, and since 2019 he has also led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has made highly acclaimed recordings with both ensembles. For his BRSO debut, Emelyanychev has put together an attractive Romantic program in which one can expect a fresh approach inspired by the music of the Classical and Baroque periods. This is also in line with violinist Isabelle Faust’s approach – especially for the Brahms concerto, in which she pursues the ideal of clarity, transparency and lightness.
The BRSO welcomes Maxim Emelyanychev, one of the most fascinating talents of the young generation of conductors, to its podium for the first time. Trained by the legendary Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Emelyanychev began his conducting career in his native Russia, while at the same time attracting attention as an extraordinary pianist – with CD recordings of Mozart sonatas, for example, or playing the fortepiano in Teodor Currentzis’ Da Ponte cycle. Since 2013 he has led the highly successful Italian Baroque ensemble Il pomo d’oro, and since 2019 he has also led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has made highly acclaimed recordings with both ensembles. For his BRSO debut, Emelyanychev has put together an attractive Romantic program in which one can expect a fresh approach inspired by the music of the Classical and Baroque periods. This is also in line with violinist Isabelle Faust’s approach – especially for the Brahms concerto, in which she pursues the ideal of clarity, transparency and lightness.
The violin theme that opens Haydn’s B flat major String Quartet op. 76/4 soars into the heights above a sustained chord in the other strings. Listeners felt they heard the rising of the sun – hence the work’s nickname, the “Sunrise” Quartet. Here Haydn’s music, in its allusive idiom, takes on almost proto-romantic traits. In contrast, Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz (Slow movement) for string quartet sounds like a distant echo of the romantic era. His Six Bagatelles set out in a wholly different vein. These terse miniatures dispense with everything incidental, suggesting with a just few notes something that listeners can project further in their own minds. Finally, Schumann’s Piano Quintet is not only one of his most celebrated creations, but the piece that established the piano quintet genre in the first place. Clara Schumann rapturously summed it up: “a work abounding in vigour and novelty”.
Once again Gustavo Dudamel will be a guest of the BRSO! Now this principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has dreamt up something special for his five short concerts: a Schumann cycle, something never heard before in such concentration at the BRSO. It’s a musical portrait of a genius who was only inspired to write his own symphonies after stumbling upon Schubert’s Great C-major Symphony. The series features the Spring Symphony in B-flat major, the Second in C major, the Rhenish in E-flat major and the Fourth in D minor. Rounding off the Schumann feast are a cappella choral works by José Antonio Abreu, Antonio Estévez and Modesta Bor. The three poignant miniatures, including a love song after Pablo Neruda, shed revealing light on the soul of Latin America and send a musical greeting from Dudamel to his native Venezuela.
Once again Gustavo Dudamel will be a guest of the BRSO! Now this principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has dreamt up something special for his five short concerts: a Schumann cycle, something never heard before in such concentration at the BRSO. It’s a musical portrait of a genius who was only inspired to write his own symphonies after stumbling upon Schubert’s Great C-major Symphony. The series features the Spring Symphony in B-flat major, the Second in C major, the Rhenish in E-flat major and the Fourth in D minor. Rounding off the Schumann feast are a cappella choral works by José Antonio Abreu, Antonio Estévez and Modesta Bor. The three poignant miniatures, including a love song after Pablo Neruda, shed revealing light on the soul of Latin America and send a musical greeting from Dudamel to his native Venezuela.
Once again Gustavo Dudamel will be a guest of the BRSO! Now this principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has dreamt up something special for his five short concerts: a Schumann cycle, something never heard before in such concentration at the BRSO. It’s a musical portrait of a genius who was only inspired to write his own symphonies after stumbling upon Schubert’s Great C-major Symphony. The series features the Spring Symphony in B-flat major, the Second in C major, the Rhenish in E-flat major and the Fourth in D minor. Rounding off the Schumann feast are a cappella choral works by José Antonio Abreu, Antonio Estévez and Modesta Bor. The three poignant miniatures, including a love song after Pablo Neruda, shed revealing light on the soul of Latin America and send a musical greeting from Dudamel to his native Venezuela.
Once again Gustavo Dudamel will be a guest of the BRSO! Now this principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has dreamt up something special for his five short concerts: a Schumann cycle, something never heard before in such concentration at the BRSO. It’s a musical portrait of a genius who was only inspired to write his own symphonies after stumbling upon Schubert’s Great C-major Symphony. The series features the Spring Symphony in B-flat major, the Second in C major, the Rhenish in E-flat major and the Fourth in D minor. Rounding off the Schumann feast are a cappella choral works by José Antonio Abreu, Antonio Estévez and Modesta Bor. The three poignant miniatures, including a love song after Pablo Neruda, shed revealing light on the soul of Latin America and send a musical greeting from Dudamel to his native Venezuela.
Once again Gustavo Dudamel will be a guest of the BRSO! Now this principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has dreamt up something special for his five short concerts: a Schumann cycle, something never heard before in such concentration at the BRSO. It’s a musical portrait of a genius who was only inspired to write his own symphonies after stumbling upon Schubert’s Great C-major Symphony. The series features the Spring Symphony in B-flat major, the Second in C major, the Rhenish in E-flat major and the Fourth in D minor. Rounding off the Schumann feast are a cappella choral works by José Antonio Abreu, Antonio Estévez and Modesta Bor. The three poignant miniatures, including a love song after Pablo Neruda, shed revealing light on the soul of Latin America and send a musical greeting from Dudamel to his native Venezuela.
British-born Andrew Manze began his impressive career as a violinist and conductor of early music. Since then the vitality and spontaneity he acquired in the early music scene now covers every era of music history. With Schumann’s Cello Concerto of 1850 he ventures into the innermost precincts of romanticism. Endless dreamlike melodic lines and a fervent urge to communicate characterise the solo part, making this concerto, to Munich cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, one of the most personal of all works for cello and orchestra. Manze’s unconventional and daredevil approach is as welcome here as it is in Beethoven’s First Symphony, where the composer’s idiosyncratic and trailblazing will to expression already flares up behind a seemingly classicist façade.
British-born Andrew Manze began his impressive career as a violinist and conductor of early music. Since then the vitality and spontaneity he acquired in the early music scene now covers every era of music history. With Schumann’s Cello Concerto of 1850 he ventures into the innermost precincts of romanticism. Endless dreamlike melodic lines and a fervent urge to communicate characterise the solo part, making this concerto, to Munich cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, one of the most personal of all works for cello and orchestra. Manze’s unconventional and daredevil approach is as welcome here as it is in Beethoven’s First Symphony, where the composer’s idiosyncratic and trailblazing will to expression already flares up behind a seemingly classicist façade.
British-born Andrew Manze began his impressive career as a violinist and conductor of early music. Since then the vitality and spontaneity he acquired in the early music scene now covers every era of music history. With Schumann’s Cello Concerto of 1850 he ventures into the innermost precincts of romanticism. Endless dreamlike melodic lines and a fervent urge to communicate characterise the solo part, making this concerto, to Munich cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, one of the most personal of all works for cello and orchestra. Manze’s unconventional and daredevil approach is as welcome here as it is in Beethoven’s First Symphony, where the composer’s idiosyncratic and trailblazing will to expression already flares up behind a seemingly classicist façade.