CANCELLED: Symphoniker Hamburg / Sergei Nakariakov / Sylvain Cambreling

The Trumpet Concerto that Mieczysław Weinberg wrote in the 1960s is a true discovery. Weinberg is admittedly not a household name, but his significance for 20th century music is considerable: his friend and mentor Dmitri Shostakovich admired him as a kindred spirit. The son of Polish Jews, Weinberg only just managed to escape the onslaught of the Nazis. He fled to the Soviet Union, where he established himself as a recognised and celebrated composer, although he was also persecuted by the regime from time to time. Under the baton of chief conductor Sylvain Cambreling, the inimitable trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov can be heard in a part that is a true challenge for any soloist.

In one of his many letters, Tchaikovsky explained the programme of his Fourth Symphony: In the very first bars we hear the »power of fate«, the main theme revolving around a single note with its powerful triplets and quavers. This »fatum«, thus Tchaikovsky, has us constantly under its control, so that we can never experience perfect happiness and peace. »We have to submit to it, and take refuge in futile longing.«

»The aim of the entire work«, Béla Bartók commented on his Dance Suite, which opens this evening’s concert, »was to create a suite of idealised peasant music where the individual movements represent specific musical types:Hungarian, Slovak and even Arab. In some cases, the different styles even overlap«.