Events

Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5, ‘Emperor’
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

VENUE PROGRAMME NOTE:
Music thrives on change: for centuries, great composers have channelled the spirit of their age into music that shocked some and gripped others – but has never lost its power to thrill. Stravinsky’s taboo-smashing ballet provides the final blast tonight, as Vasily Petrenko conducts this explosive opening concert of the RPO’s new series. But first he explores the rich, strange and sometimes violent new sounds that Alban Berg created in the Vienna of Klimt and Mahler. And he is joined by the superb British pianist Paul Lewis in a masterpiece that broke all the rules and still sounds just as exciting today as when it was premiered. It’s the concerto they call the ‘Emperor’: daring, majestic and filled from beginning to end with the irrepressible genius of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Modest Mussorgsky: Ivanova noch’ na lïsoy gore »A Night on Bald Mountain«
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, op. 35
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra Sz 116

VENUE PROGRAMME NOTE:
Tchaikovsky wrote only one violin concerto. At its premiere in Vienna in 1881, it met with mixed opinions. The notorious music critic Eduard Hanslick had nothing but scorn for it. It undoubtedly places the highest demands on the soloists; the original dedicatee, the famous Russian violinist Leopold Auer, even considered it unplayable. In addition, it requires great sensitivity, especially in the second movement, a canzonetta, about which Tchaikovsky’s pen pal and patron Nadezhda von Meck wrote: “How much poetry and what longing in these sons voilés, the mysterious tones.” One critic described Julia Fischer’s interpretation of the work as “simply stunning,” “soulful and romantic without becoming sentimental.” At the Vienna Konzerthaus, she tackles the challenging work together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under its chief conductor Vasily Petrenko. The concert is preceded by Mussorgsky’s colorful, orgiastic symphonic poem “A Night on Bald Mountain.” The second half of the concert features Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, a life-affirming, powerful piece, even though it was written in the last years of the composer’s life.

Antonín Dvořák: Carnival / Concert Overture op. 92
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, op. 35
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra Sz 116

VENUE PROGRAMME NOTE:
»Julia Fischer plays the Violin Concerto in a fresh, rousing and energetic way, with a wide range of tones and a fantastic technique. Her Tchaikovsky sounds soulful and romantic without becoming sentimental.« Julia Fischer’s fantastic recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, which has been so enthusiastically reviewed here by BR, dates back to 2006. Almost 20 years later, the consistently excellent violinist is still one of the best interpreters of this work, which, with its breakneck cascades of sound and emotional force, places the highest demands on the soloist. Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is also characterized by a special intensity of sound – highly virtuosic and hopeful, it offers the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of its chief conductor, the best opportunities to present itself as a top-class orchestra.