ConcertPulse
Playing for Philharmonie
Philharmonie de Paris, Grande salle Pierre Boulez (Paris)
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With Sir Simon Rattle conducting, a programme that nicely balances Brahms’ final symphony with Boulez’s Éclat and a French premiere, the suite from Benjamin’s opera Lessons in Love and Violence.
Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion in Brahms’ deeply moving A German Requiem, with their loyal collaborators Sabine Devieilhe and Stéphane Degout as solists.
The string sextets of Brahms and Korngold—masterpieces of Viennese Romanticism—bring cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand together with the musicians of the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France in a rare chamber configuration.
L’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of its new music director, Daniel Harding, who succeeds Sir Antonio Pappano at the helm of the prestigious Roman orchestra.
A spotlight on the most gypsy-spirited of German composers, with the magnificent orchestra founded by Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer in 1983, performing with their fellow countryman and Brahms aficionado, pianist András Schiff.
Clara Schumann virtually stopped composing after her marriage, having not only to earn money from concert appearances for her steadily growing family, but also to give her husband space for his own composing. Yet her sole orchestral work fully merits a firm place in the repertoire. Pianist Beatrice Rana has accepted the challenge of the richly chordal yet splendidly melodious solo part. The slow movement (Romanza) opens with a passionate monologue, followed by an intimate tête-à-tête with the cello. The defiantly hymnic finale likewise places its focus on the piano – Clara’s voice. The programme continues with Symphony No. 3 by Johannes Brahms, the second great love in Clara’s life. “What a work! What poetry!” she exclaimed when she first heard it; “a heartbeat, every movement a jewel!” Before the interval we will hear Hans Abrahamsen’s Vers le silence, a work commissioned by several orchestras, including the BRSO. Here the composer takes up the four elements – fire, earth, wind, water – and adds a fifth element fully in keeping with Greek philosophy: transcendent nature. At the helm of the orchestra in this unusually exciting programme is the well-known Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.