ConcertPulse
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Sir András Schiff
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
The career of Sir András Schiff, one of the world’s leading pianists, has already lasted over half a century. You can frequently also experience the all-round musician as a conductor and he regularly collaborates with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Schiff and this orchestra share an interest in historically informed interpretations. In 2021, the perfectly matched duo documented its artistic connection in an acclaimed recording of Brahms’ piano concertos and now presents works by two composers who embody the very essence of German Romanticism: Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The renown of Robert Schumann’s piano concerto is so great to this day that hardly anyone knows the other works he composed for piano and orchestra. Anyone who wants to change this can let themselves be inspired by Schumann’s »Allegro appassionato« at the start of the concert, which exhausts the whole spectrum of romantic moods from the greatest tenderness to gloomier drama and, as an aside, lights a real firework of pianistic brilliance. Afterwards, Sir András Schiff swaps the keys for the baton and conducts excerpts from Mendelssohn’s »A Midsummer Night’s Dream« – a string of pearls of perfectly drawn scenes and character sketches whose elegance and casual sophistication is consistently astonishing. We come full circle when Schiff returns to the piano in order to conclude the evening with Schumann’s piano concerto, which is quite rightly one of the most popular perennials of the concert repertoire!