Göteborgs Konserthus Just Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Op 83 Allegro non troppo Allegro appassionato Andante Allegretto grazioso Already Bach and his contemporaries set the forms for the piano concerto of the time, usually for harpsichord but also for organ and clavichord: a three-part affair with the arrangement just right, slow, fast. The Viennese classics refined the pianoforte concerto with a more detailed and logically structured scheme. The opening movement in sonata form - almost always an allegro, "cheerful, cheerful" - was the main movement and supporting beam of the concert. The slow movement - andante, "walking", at walking pace - was often in a closely related minor key, and the finale - allegro or presto, "quick" - was in nine cases out of ten a lively rondo: a repeated theme with a couple of contrasting digressions. Here there was a built-in balance and tension that approached the ideal. So why in God's name did Brahms choose to put an extra leg on the three-legged stool that stood so stable and steady on its own? Yes, everything should not be easy in this life and an artist must create and innovate. Proven templates were not for Brahms. Although he is considered a traditionalist, he was in many ways innovative, with his mind open even outside the world of music. As far as the second piano concerto is concerned, chance and circumstances also seem to have played a decisive role. The fourth leg was composed first: the second movement scherzo was sketched in the spring of 1878 and was originally intended for the violin concerto. Brahms wrote the other movements in Bad Ischl in the summer of 1878. Famous is his ironic comment in a letter to Elisabeth von Herzogen in 1881: "Wrote a small, very small piano concerto with a small, very small and mild scherzo." Perhaps Brahms found the soloist's burden too heavy. He should know: after the premiere in the Great Ballroom in Budapest on November 9, 1881, he played the solo part himself on tour.

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Symphony No. 2 in D Op 73 Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) Allegro con spirito It was not obvious and easy for the early established German composer Johannes Brahms to compose symphonies. He had one foot left in Viennese classicism, was not too interested in changing and modernizing his tonal language and was a great admirer of Beethoven. It is said that he felt his "backpack" as a burden. That there was nothing more to do after his collegues "nine". But Brahms was not reactionary, just extremely concerned with his personal style and technical skill in everything he created. He did not give his works narrative titles, he considered instrumental music to be music and nothing else. Only at the age of 43 - after great success with piano works (solo pieces and the first piano concerto), solo songs and choral compositions (Ein deutsches Requiem and others) and chamber music - did he complete his Symphony No. 1 in 1876, which he worked on for over 20 years. For Symphony No. 2 he needed considerably less time, in the summer of 1877 in the idyllic Pörtschach on the Wörthersee in Austria. Whether this calm and friendly environment inspired him or whether he was in a harmonious phase of life anyway, is not known. However, his second symphony is often referred to as "Brahms' Pastoral Symphony". It is significantly brighter and more optimistic than the first, even though he himself - probably with a twinkle in his eye - wrote to a good friend that it was "the saddest thing he has written". Certainly there are touches of melancholy in this symphony too, especially in the slow second movement, but the key of D major speaks its language and several influences from Ländler and other German and Austrian folk tones give the music a happier and more festive character. The first movement begins with three notes in the cello and bass parts, which recur like a motto throughout the symphony in various instrument combinations and transformations. Two main themes dominate the movement, the first is immediately introduced in horns and strings, the second is very "Brahmic", based on folk music. It bears a strong resemblance to his famous song Wiegenlied. In the second movement, its dreamy and wistful double theme is introduced in the cello and woodwind parts with a dark, moody tone, which dominates the whole movement with breaks for a brighter, faster and more powerful middle section. The third movement has a light and airy intermezzo character and is the movement that most closely gives the symphony its pastoral character with, among other things, a folk woodwind melody to pizzicato in the cello part. The fourth movement is more powerful and glossy with some march-like sections, although it begins seriously, "mysteriously" softly. After a quieter section, the symphony ends jubilantly and life-affirming in a magnificent crescendo.

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Göteborgs Konserthus, the funk gem at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2017-2018 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been Chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada is Chief conductor of the Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is also appointed Music Director of the City of Cologne and the Gürzenich Orchestra from 2025-2026. In the current season, Orozco-Estrada makes debuts at the Semperoper Dresden with The Marriage of Figaro, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul and the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid. He has been re-invited to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchester National de France, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the radio orchestras SWR, WDR and DSO Berlin. He also returns to the Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt where he was previously principal conductor, and to the Houston Symphony Orchestra (music director 2014-2022). Andrés Orozco-Estrada was born in Medellín, Colombia and took his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997 he moved to Vienna, where he was accepted into Uroš Lajovic's conducting class at the famous Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. Since 2022, Orozco-Estrada is professor of orchestral conducting at the same university. Andrés Orozco-Estrada last visited the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in autumn 2023 when he conducted Verdi's Requiem.

Imagination and virtuosity have established Kirill Gerstein as one of today's most prolific and outstanding pianists. He has been Artist in Residence at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Spotlight Artist at the London Symphony Orchestra, Resident Artist at the Festival Aix-en-Provence and curated a three-part concert series at London's Wigmore Hall. His recording of Thomas Adès Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Boston Symphony received the 2020 Gramophone Award. Gerstein has performed the work over 50 times with 20 different orchestras. Kirill Gerstein has commissioned new works by, among others, Timo Andres, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen and Brad Mehldau. He recently recorded Thomas Larcher's piano concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic and Ed Gardner for ECM. Gerstein is a professor at Berlin's Hanns Eisler Hochschule. At the Kronberg Academy, his online seminars with conversations with leading composers and artists have reached thousands of viewers. Highlights this season include Musikfest Berlin with Messiaen's From the Canyons to the Stars with Sir Simon Rattle, Berg Kammerkonzert with Ilya Gringolts and Heinz Holliger and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Ferruccio Busoni's Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchester National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon as well as Rachmaninov's third piano concerto with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He also performs Gershwin's piano concerto on ZDF's traditional New Year's broadcast from Dresden. At the age of 16, Russian-born Gerstein graduated from New York's Manhattan School of Music, followed by further studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. In 2010 he won first prize in the Arthur Rubinstein competition. He has appeared several times in Sweden.