Depth of feeling, melancholy and sadness: the programme of this concert with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under their chief conductor Jakub Hruša revolves around this triad. The concert begins with the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a musical declaration of love by the composer to his wife Alma. An ideal prelude to Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), the composer’s “swan song”, written in 1948, at a time when Strauss saw his world in ruins after the war and was already plagued by illness. American soprano Corinne Winters “shone with intensity and bright heights” (Der Standard). The concert closes with Suk’s symphonic monumental work Asrael. In it, Suk deals with two strokes of fate, first the death of his father-in-law Antonín Dvorák and a little later also the surprising death of his wife, Dvorák’s daughter. “What a blast” (Der Standard)
Andris Nelsons and Lucas & Arthur Jussen
In this concert from the state-of-the-art Konzerthaus Dortmund, Lucas and Arthur Jussen join the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons for a rare performance of the brilliant concerto for two pianos and orchestra by the 14-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, himself Gewandhauskapellmeister from 1835 to 1847. To complete the programme, orchestra and conductor present first another rarity – the beautiful “Blumine” movement composed for the original version of Mahler’s
Symphony No. 1 – alongside Dvorák’s life-enhancing Symphony No. 8, a work in which the composer’s symphonic skill and melodic gifts mix to irresistible effect. PROGRAM Mahler: Blumine; Mendelssohn: Concerto for two Pianos; Dvorák: Symphony No. 8