Associated Musings

Time flies when you’re having fun, and so we’ve come to the last Symphonic Hits series performances of the ISO season – which also means our last Sound Off preconcert events of the season (hosted by yours truly, as usual).  Friday and Saturday’s performances are led by guest conductor Jun Märkl, and feature Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 along with two virtuosic works for piano and orchestra:  Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Saint-Säens’ Africa, with piano soloist Marc-André Hamelin.  I’ll be hosting Sound Off one hour before each concert - I hope you can join us!

One of the things I’ll be talking about at Sound Off this week is the connection between Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and a motet for mixed choir that he wrote during the same period:  Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen?  (Why is the light given to those who suffer?)  Brahms wrote a letter that indicates that the feelings expressed in the motet are similar to the darker shadows that appear in the otherwise largely sunny mood of his Symphony No. 2.  Here’s a nice performance of the motet by the Prelude Choir Budapest:

Here’s the beginning of a fine performance of the symphony by Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic (this particular clip contains the first part of the first movement).

Here are the two works on the first half of the program.  First, Yefim Bronfman playing the Liszt 2nd Concerto, with Valery Gergiev conducting the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra.  The special bonus on this one is the chance to see Gergiev conducting with a toothpick for a baton (literally!).  And don't ask me why he does that - it's a mystery to me too :-)



And finally, here’s Africa, by Camille Saint-Säens – a piece so infrequently played these days that I couldn’t even find a professional-level performance video on YouTube.  But here’s a fine performance with audio only (performers unknown, unfortunately):



See you at the Symphony!