A seasoned dream team: chief conductor Alan Gilbert and his NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra join forces with the exceptional violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann once again, awakening memories of their numerous joint concerts and recordings in the past. As with any deep, long-standing relationship, a blind musical trust has developed between them over the years. The ideal prerequisites are therefore in place for a memorable performance of Igor Stravinsky’s virtuosic Violin Concerto. The programme also features one of the Hamburg orchestra’s real showpieces: Brahms’s First Symphony.
Besetzung
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin
conductor Alan Gilbert
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sinfonie g-Moll KV 183
Igor Strawinsky
Concerto en Ré für Violine und Orchester
– Pause –
Johannes Brahms
Sinfonie Nr. 1 c-Moll op. 68
About the programme
Igor Stravinsky’s virtuosic yet slightly ironically exaggerated Violin Concerto is a piece from the composer’s neoclassicist period – for which Mozart’s »little« G Minor Symphony provides the ultimate warm-up. Stravinsky’s concerto clearly draws on influences such as the Baroque concerto grosso, with several instruments called on to express soloistic qualities and incredible accuracy in the stylistic masquerade – especially, of course, the violin.
»The First« – Not only for Brahms
In Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony, the musicians of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra breathe in the musical air of home. The Hamburg-born composer wrote large parts of the music on the Baltic island of Rügen, and the work has always had a special place in the orchestra’s repertoire and has literally been »the First« in numerous ways.
Brahms’s First Symphony was among the first pieces to be rehearsed in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. It was also the symphony with which Alan Gilbert marked his debut as chief conductor in Hamburg, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra will soon be taking the work on tour to Japan and Korea.
