Schumann and Brahms

Schumann and Brahms

Grieghallen

Due to unforeseen circumstances related to the conductor's visa, the concert on Thursday 17 November will unfortunately not take place. The concert on Wednesday 16 November will go ahead as planned. All ticketholders have been contacted.

On 31 May 1841, Clara Schumann wrote in her diary of the ‘wild sounds’ spilling from her husband’s study. A new symphony was taking shape on his desk. What Clara didn’t know, is that Robert was in the process of writing her into the score.

The result was his Symphony No 4, a love letter to Clara that flows subtly and beautifully from a tune entwined on strings and bassoon that comes to represent their strong union.

Someone who affected Clara and Robert Schumann equally was the young composer they discovered, Johannes Brahms. Brahms faced a crisis of confidence when writing his first Piano Concerto. He wanted this score to be the most monumental, hard-hitting and original orchestral statement since Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. When he finally got his concerto right, it proved piece of huge emotional breadth that still thrills and surprises a century and a half later.

The ‘superbly resourceful and stylish’ (Evening Standard) Maxim Emelyanychev (photo: Elena Belova) leads this performance of highly emotional statements from the mid 1800s, with doyenne of pianists Francesco Piemontesi for company.

 

THE ARTISTS

Maxim Emelyanychev (photo: Andrej Grilc)
Artist's website

 

Francesco Piemontesi (photo: Marco Borggreve)
Artist's website