ConcertPulse
Manfred Honeck & Paul Lewis
Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor belongs to one of the programmes that have been consistently rescheduled due to the pandemic; fortunately, it can finally take place as it had originally been planned in the spring of 2020 with Paul Lewis as the soloist. The work is an unabashedly Romantic piece in which the young composer portrays the bright, expansive, and playful colors of his homeland in an almost impressionistic way. As one of the most sophisticated pianists of his generation, Britain’s Paul Lewis will render this musical portrait with consummate skill. In conductor Manfred Honeck’s conception, Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet will be brought to life with a more expressive, or, to be precise, more Dadaist character: rhythmically concise, ecstatically pulsating – a playful new territory for the BRSO musicians. And, indeed, every concert that includes the Eroica is bound to be one of the highlights of an orchestral season.