Sunday 18 December 2022, 11:00
Franz Liszt (1811‑1886)
»The Preludes«
Peteris Vasks (*1946)
Violin Concerto No. 1 »Distant Light«
Cesar Franck (1822‑1890)
Symphony in D minor
»What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose first and solemn note is death?« This movement from Alphonse de Lamartine’s poetic meditation »Les Préludes« inspired Franz Liszt to write a poem symphony of the same name. Since it has only contradicted itself on the extra-musical content of the work, it remains fascinatingly enigmatic. – Pēteris Vasks has been one of the leading Latvian composers for many years. The concerto for violin and strings, composed in 1997, is dedicated to his friend Gidon Kremer. In Lübeck it will be played by Carlos Johnson, concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. – On the occasion of the 200th birthday of the great Belgian-French composer César Franck, the grandiose symphony in D minor will be heard, which Franck tackled at the age of 63 as his first and only symphony: a complex masterpiece which does not deny that the musical homeland of Franck was the organ. For more than 30 years he improvised as titular organist at St. Clotilde in Paris “like a reincarnation of Johann Sebastian Bach” (Liszt). In the D minor symphony he literally pulls out all the stops. – American conductor John Axelrod was principal conductor of the Real Orquestra Sinfónica de Sevilla and has conducted over 160 orchestras worldwide.
Photo: (c) Jan Philip Lassen
