Tour: Vienna

A class A concert with a lot of Bs: the BFO is visiting Paris with one work each by Bartók and Bruckner. The first half of the concert will feature Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the one “more pleasing in its thematic material”, which was premiered in Frankfurt with the composer as the soloist. This time, Alexandre Kantorow will sit at the piano, just two days before he celebrates his own 30th birthday. The French pianist, a winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition was described by Classica as “the young tzar of the piano” and by Fanfare as no less than “Liszt’s reincarnation”. Playing Bartók with Lisztian talents seems a promising endeavor. After the intermission, Iván Fischer will lead the orchestra for Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 7. Over an hour long, the piece was the most acclaimed work of the composer, who in this composition paid homage in several ways to the art of his hero, Wagner.

After his Piano Concerto No. 1 turned out to be complicated, to put it mildly (or as he put it: “its texture is slightly difficult – indeed, one might say very difficult – both for the orchestra and for the audience”), Bartók wrote its counterpart, though in many respects it can also be regarded as a continuation to the work. He thought the melodically rather pleasing composition was reminiscent of some of his early compositions. Of course, the general public now regards the two concertos as completely on the same level. One of the distinctive features of Piano Concerto No. 2 is its orchestration: while the piano is joined only by winds and percussion in the first movement, the second movement pits the piano against only strings and timpani, and the composer does not bring the instrumental groups together until the finale. Another extraordinary element is how Bartók secretly expands the traditionally three-movement genre into four movements: In the middle of the symmetrical slow movement, the Bartókian night music, there is a symmetrical scherzo. There is also no lack of quoting: in the opening movement in sonata form, the trumpet conjures up the characteristic motif of Stravinsky’s Firebird. The later theme, although resembling a folk song, is Bartók’s own melody. Eventually these themes return, although in a twisted manner, in the rhythm-centered rondo finale

A miracle piece – Hermann Levi, conductor of the premiere of Parsifal, has said of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. In the two years he spent composing the music, the conductor visited Bayreuth. There, he not only saw Parsifal, but more importantly, he had his last encounter with Wagner, whom he truly admired. With the passing of his role model in 1883, Bruckner’s symphony took a new turn. The stormy scherzo, following in the tradition of Beethoven, was already complete; and Bruckner had already incorporated some passages from Wagner in the opening movement, which he nonetheless had left incomplete. Perhaps the most moving gesture, however, was the slow movement Bruckner composed upon hearing of his fellow composer’s death. Sweepingly elegant, the music expresses deep mourning: It is both ominous and undoubtedly beautiful. Exuding Wagner’s musical landscape, the movement concludes with a funeral song of the so-called Wagner tubas, composed using the main theme. It is from this mood that the scherzo, already mentioned, breaks free, to be followed by the finale. There, not only does Bruckner bring into harmony musical characters at odds with one another, but he also recalls the opening theme of the piece. Dedicated to Wagner’s mentor, Ludwig II of Bavaria, the symphony premiered on December 30, 1884 in Leipzig, conducted by Artúr Nikisch.