Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider / Pablo Ferrández

In Luciano Berio’s »Bewegung« (»movement«), composed in 1971, restlessness is transformed into captivating music: the colourful orchestral piece is characterised by the repetition of a sequence of notes – and the hypnotic momentum increases steadily in tempo and dynamics. Following this, we present Robert Schumann’s Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, featuring Pablo Ferrández as soloist: Schumann wrote it in 1850 during a veritable creative burst, choosing his favourite key, A minor. A book published during his lifetime, entitled »Aesthetics of Music«, states that this work »reveals nothing but dedication, nestling in cheerfulness and, in pain, neither resisting nor sinking into despair«. And so the piece can be heard as a dramatic scene – with a main theme that runs like a common thread through its many variations, from the dreamy beginning to the fiery finale. The programme concludes with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. It is an autobiographical work from 1878 in which he reflected on his current situation: to keep the secret of his homosexuality, he was briefly married to one of his female students, but this made him even unhappier, leading to a nervous breakdown. A motif of fate plays a decisive role in the flow of movement, at times melancholic, at times unbridled, about which Tchaikovsky remarked: »There is not a single bar in my symphony that I have not felt through and to the core, and which is not an echo of my innermost soul.«