Second Symphony Concert

Hector Berlioz regarded his friend Franz Liszt as “the new Faust, the king of the piano”. Liszt’s virtuoso piano playing was unsurpassed and as a composer he showered the instrument with a dazzling body of work.

Finnish concert pianist Antti Siirala is the guest soloist in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2. First performed in Weimar in 1857, the piece consists of one single, long movement, divided into six sections which interconnect by transformation of thematic material, employing the finest Romantic instrumentation techniques. Hector Berlioz’s slightly earlier “Roman Carnival Overture” (written in 1844) draws on material and themes from his opera “Benvenuto Cellini”. Its lively action revolves around the Florentine sculptor Cellini and is set in 1530 Rome during the Carnival, a jovial atmosphere which Berlioz effortlessly retains in the concert overture. “That was a symphony?” an esteemed music professor at the Paris Conservatory raged after the first performance of Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor in 1889. Granted, the work’s continuous thematic metamorphosis and thriving, persistently surprising harmonies were unusual.

The guest conductor for this exciting programme is Greek-born Vassilis Christopoulos, former Artistic Director of the Athens State Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance.