Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester A-Dur KV 488
York Höller
»Voyage« Europäische Erstaufführung - Auftragswerk des Gürzenich-Orchesters Köln
Johannes Brahms
Sinfonie Nr. 1 c-Moll op. 68
*3. Akt
- Radu Lupu Piano
- Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
- Markus Stenz Conductor
He is able to transport a whole world with a few pianissimo notes like hardly anyone else – the 67-year-old Radu Lupu, a mystic of the piano. He is publicity-shy, even detached from the world, as though he had fallen into our age from a previous century, and enjoys the highest esteem of colleagues and critics alike. Lupu recently received the 2012 Ruhr Piano Festival Prize for his artistry. Together with Markus Stenz, he will perform Mozart’s late Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488, in Cologne – the work about which novelist Maarten 't Hart reflected, “If there is any evidence at all of the existence of a better world, a paradise of sorts, then it is this piano concerto by Mozart.”
But musical perfection can also be frightening. Johannes Brahms regarded the legacy of Viennese Classicism as an almost overwhelming burden. He did not dare to present his first symphony until the age of 43, after being designated as Beethoven’s heir by the music world years earlier. He was able to live up to this promise with his Symphony No. 1 in 1876, however.
Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra promise two more surprises during this concert – a world premiere composed by York Höller, Leverkusen’s pioneer of new music, and Act 3, which will either contrast with or continue what was heard beforehand.
