Brno Philharmonic's 64th season will begin with Elisabeth Leonskaja

18 September 2019, 1:00
Brno Philharmonic's 64th season will begin with Elisabeth Leonskaja

Brno Philharmonic will start its 64th concert season this Thursday. The show will feature guest pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja, and the concert will be conducted by chief conductor and artistic director Dennis Russell Davies. Works by Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók and Joe Hisaishi will be played.

The night will open with Brahms' Symphony No. 1, which took a long fourteen years to be written. It cannot hide its direct relation with Beethoven; sometimes it is referred to as Brahms' transformation of Beethoven's Fifth or even as "Beethoven's Tenth". “In the finale, a theme will sound in the French horns sometimes branded as "greetings to Clara Schumann", for which Brahms treasured deep affection, and then a theme strongly resembling the melody from the last movement of the Ninth,” explained dramaturge of the Brno Philharmonic Vítězslav Mikeš. The opening concert will take place on 19 September at 7 pm in the Stadion hall in Kounicova Street.      

After the intermission, Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 will be played as one of his brightest, most balanced and listener-friendly works. “Bartók intended this piece as a tribute to his wife, Ditta, and also to provide her with means of subsistence. He thought that Ditta would play the concert and improve thus her financial situation. This is also reflected in the concept of the solo part, the inwardness and noblesse of which stands in contrast to the barbarian style of Bartók's previous piano concerts and returns to the balanced use of the piano as a melodic, rhythmic and virtuoso instrument,” said Mikeš. The concert will be performed by Elisabeth Leonskaja, who has been one of the most valued personalities of piano art for several decades. As a soloist she performed with practically all the most important orchestras in the world, released numerous recordings for which she was awarded a number of times. Her CD Paris was selected by the International Classical Music Awards jury as the Solo Recording of the Year in 2014.

At the end of the evening, a Czech premiere will be staged of a composition named DA. MA. SHI. E by Joe Hisaishi. “It is very cheerful and positive, woven from a combination of eight models generated from the opening motif of the first violin. Changes in the colour of the sound are evoked by transitions between the scales A major and B major, highlighted by intense invasions of brass instruments. In the second half of the composition, a chant in brass instruments joins the motif tissue, which gives the conclusion a proper momentum,” described his work Hisaishi, who has become famous namely as an author of incidental music. He has been signed under some eighty films and has been brought to fame by his collaboration with the legendary anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, on films such Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,  My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and others. Other globally acclaimed films with Hisaishi's music include The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Fireworks and Villain. The composer won numerous important awards for his incidental music production.

Elisabeth Leonskaja/ photo from FB archive

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