ConcertPulse
Filters
A breathtaking interplay between electrifying dancing and classical music’s timeless beauty unfolds at the WERK7 theater in Munich’s Werksviertel-Mittel district. Young talents from both educational institutions, the BRSO Academy and the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance, bring melodies to life on stage. The audience can expect a unique performance in which experimental dance provides new interpretations of familiar music. This promises to be an concert full of surprises and artistic synergy that will captivate even those who are die-hard fans of just one art form.
Schubert was just sixteen years old when he began working on the first of his eight symphonies in 1813, the last of which he completed in 1825. At the age of nineteen, he began writing his Fourth, the “Tragic,” which moves from C minor to C major, i.e. from darkness to light – “per aspera ad astra.” The Fifth Symphony is even more optimistic, striving from the first bar towards a “brighter, better life” and a cheerful buoyancy that dissolves all melancholy. Incidentally, this is the closest Schubert ever got in his compositional output to the Mozartean ideal of beauty – as exemplified in the “Jenamy” Piano Concerto, “Mozart’s Eroica” (Alfred Einstein): original, virtuosic, and daring. Another highlight of this concert is the collaboration of Maria João Pires and Giovanni Antonini, two artists with whom the BRSO has a close relationship.
Schubert was just sixteen years old when he began working on the first of his eight symphonies in 1813, the last of which he completed in 1825. At the age of nineteen, he began writing his Fourth, the “Tragic,” which moves from C minor to C major, i.e. from darkness to light – “per aspera ad astra.” The Fifth Symphony is even more optimistic, striving from the first bar towards a “brighter, better life” and a cheerful buoyancy that dissolves all melancholy. Incidentally, this is the closest Schubert ever got in his compositional output to the Mozartean ideal of beauty – as exemplified in the “Jenamy” Piano Concerto, “Mozart’s Eroica” (Alfred Einstein): original, virtuosic, and daring. Another highlight of this concert is the collaboration of Maria João Pires and Giovanni Antonini, two artists with whom the BRSO has a close relationship.
For a musician, the fugue is inextricably linked with Bach, who raised the fugue to dizzying stylistic heights. The Latin fuga means “flight” – in other words, a theme “flees” from one voice to another and is repeated at different pitches. One of the most vital, long-lasting, and eternally modern musical forms of the past and present can be experienced in this chamber concert: starting with Mozart, who savored all the techniques he discovered in Bach, continuing with Beethoven, who replaced what contemporary critics considered the incomprehensible fugue of the last movement of his Quartet op. 130 with a more accessible finale, and finally ending with Widmann, in whose work soprano Serafina Starke runs away from the fugue – or is it the other way around?
In 2021, Japanese pianist Mao Fujita caused a sensation at the Verbier Festival with his acclaimed performance of all Mozart piano sonatas. A year later, at the age of twenty-three, he released the cycle on CD. Critics praised the pianist’s “miraculous articulation.” Mao Fujita will now make his debut with the BRSO by performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor, whose somber and resigned tone already points towards the Romantic era. Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony is equally groundbreaking. Its epic, large-scale structure, the richness and variety of phrasing, and its expansive pace led Robert Schumann to enthusiastically exclaim: “This heavenly length, like a monumental novel in four volumes.” After a long break, Semyon Bychkov will return to conduct the BRSO for this concert. The former principal conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester has led the Czech Philharmonic since 2018, and is a sought-after guest conductor of the world’s leading orchestras.
In 2021, Japanese pianist Mao Fujita caused a sensation at the Verbier Festival with his acclaimed performance of all Mozart piano sonatas. A year later, at the age of twenty-three, he released the cycle on CD. Critics praised the pianist’s “miraculous articulation.” Mao Fujita will now make his debut with the BRSO by performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor, whose somber and resigned tone already points towards the Romantic era. Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony is equally groundbreaking. Its epic, large-scale structure, the richness and variety of phrasing, and its expansive pace led Robert Schumann to enthusiastically exclaim: “This heavenly length, like a monumental novel in four volumes.” After a long break, Semyon Bychkov will return to conduct the BRSO for this concert. The former principal conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester has led the Czech Philharmonic since 2018, and is a sought-after guest conductor of the world’s leading orchestras.
In 2021, Japanese pianist Mao Fujita caused a sensation at the Verbier Festival with his acclaimed performance of all Mozart piano sonatas. A year later, at the age of twenty-three, he released the cycle on CD. Critics praised the pianist’s “miraculous articulation.” Mao Fujita will now make his debut with the BRSO by performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor, whose somber and resigned tone already points towards the Romantic era. Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony is equally groundbreaking. Its epic, large-scale structure, the richness and variety of phrasing, and its expansive pace led Robert Schumann to enthusiastically exclaim: “This heavenly length, like a monumental novel in four volumes.” After a long break, Semyon Bychkov will return to conduct the BRSO for this concert. The former principal conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester has led the Czech Philharmonic since 2018, and is a sought-after guest conductor of the world’s leading orchestras.
The chamber music of the Viennese Classical period contains both occasional works for private music-making as well as sophisticated concert music – and this duality will be evident in this charming concert for winds and strings. Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D major, composed during his stay in Mannheim in 1777, and Haydn’s Divertimento in C major, composed during his second trip to London in 1794, were both commissioned by amateur flutists. On the other hand, Mozart conceived the oboe part of his Quartet in F major, composed in 1781, for one of the best oboists of that time, Friedrich Ramm; it was probably intended as a token of appreciation for Ramm’s excellent performance at the premiere of Idomeneo in Munich. Beethoven had something quite different in mind with the three String Trios op. 9: with their heightened expressivity and expansive dimensions, they embody a type of chamber music that is no longer lightweight but rather has become a serious discourse for connoisseurs. The third Trio in C minor constitutes the pinnacle of the set.
“I have an indescribable desire to write an opera once again.” Mozart’s wish, expressed in 1777, was finally fulfilled in the fall of 1780, when he received a commission from Munich to write a grand opera seria for the upcoming carnival season. The excellence of the Munich (formerly Mannheim) orchestra, and the subject matter involving the conflict between divine law and human passion, between duty and love, inspired Mozart to write one of his most elaborate and innovative stage works. Idomeneo has long been one of Rattle’s favorite pieces. As with Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece will give Rattle the opportunity to work intensively with the chorus and to further deepen his involvement with historical performance practice in Munich. He will be joined by a superb cast of singers: Andrew Staples in the demanding title role, Sabine Devieilhe and Magdalena Kožená as the touching passionate lovers Ilia and Idamante, and Elsa Dreisig as the jealous, desperate Elettra.
“I have an indescribable desire to write an opera once again.” Mozart’s wish, expressed in 1777, was finally fulfilled in the fall of 1780, when he received a commission from Munich to write a grand opera seria for the upcoming carnival season. The excellence of the Munich (formerly Mannheim) orchestra, and the subject matter involving the conflict between divine law and human passion, between duty and love, inspired Mozart to write one of his most elaborate and innovative stage works. Idomeneo has long been one of Rattle’s favorite pieces. As with Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece will give Rattle the opportunity to work intensively with the chorus and to further deepen his involvement with historical performance practice in Munich. He will be joined by a superb cast of singers: Andrew Staples in the demanding title role, Sabine Devieilhe and Magdalena Kožená as the touching passionate lovers Ilia and Idamante, and Elsa Dreisig as the jealous, desperate Elettra.
“I have an indescribable desire to write an opera once again.” Mozart’s wish, expressed in 1777, was finally fulfilled in the fall of 1780, when he received a commission from Munich to write a grand opera seria for the upcoming carnival season. The excellence of the Munich (formerly Mannheim) orchestra, and the subject matter involving the conflict between divine law and human passion, between duty and love, inspired Mozart to write one of his most elaborate and innovative stage works. Idomeneo has long been one of Rattle’s favorite pieces. As with Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece will give Rattle the opportunity to work intensively with the chorus and to further deepen his involvement with historical performance practice in Munich. He will be joined by a superb cast of singers: Andrew Staples in the demanding title role, Sabine Devieilhe and Magdalena Kožená as the touching passionate lovers Ilia and Idamante, and Elsa Dreisig as the jealous, desperate Elettra.
Long live the classics! Rudolf Buchbinder, the grandseigneur of the piano and a welcome guest at the BRSO, will play Mozart’s C minor Piano Concerto of 1786. The gloomy, ominous opening is unusual for Mozart’s concertos; and even if a more relaxed, almost cheerful mood reigns in the Larghetto, the final set of variations returns us to the wind-swept C minor atmosphere. Elim Chan, a conductor born in Hong Kong, will open the concert with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, a paean to the ideal of liberty and revolt against political suppression. Rounding off the evening is a piece never before played in Munich by the BRSO: Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony.