ConcertPulse
Guest at the Alte Oper Frankfurt
»You must offer something good to the body so that the soul wants to live in it.« This quote became famous through Winston Churchill – but it originally originated from a Spanish mystic of the 16th century. Fittingly, we play an exciting violin concerto entitled »Corpo Elettrico« from Italian composer Luca Francesconi, born in 1956. The piece revolves around magical metamorphoses of energy processes: It all starts harmlessly at first, but as it progresses, the violin part, which at some point resembles a machine and becomes very explosive, sounds like a guitar solo by Jimi Hendrix. A tour de force with electronics and megaphones as well as an unbelievable pull – written for Patricia Kopatchinskaja in 2020, who continuously shakes up the classical music business with her uncompromising artistic attitude and once said: »When I play, I have to have something to say. It has to come from my whole body and soul.« The sound fireworks keep going after this – with Beethoven‘s most passionate symphony. His Seventh was given numerous programmatic interpretations in literature, which definitely associated material delights: they range from a wedding celebration and a knight‘s festival to the depiction of an »ancient wine feast«, with the finale heard as a »drinking binge«. Beethoven completed the symphony in 1812 – the year in which he also wrote his desperate letter to the »immortal beloved«, which for him meant the final renunciation of personal happiness in love. Nevertheless, he accomplished an optimistic work with his Seventh, because it was clear to him: »Music should strike fire from the human soul«.
