Marek Janowski with Brahms

Johannes Brahms will be a guest three times over in this concert: his portrait will look down from the ceiling of the hall onto the podium, where Marek Janowski will conduct his "Tragic Overture" and his Double Concerto. Janowski has repeatedly attracted attention with fresh, exciting Brahms interpretations; and with James Ehnes and Pablo Ferrández, a sworn soloist duo will be in action. In addition, there is Schumann's Symphony No. 4, a work by Brahms' most important patron: "Neue Bahnen" was the title of the hymn that Schumann published in 1853 in the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" about the then still very young composer. In it, he praised Brahms' "quite ingenious playing, which turned the piano into an orchestra of wailing and loudly cheering voices". What Brahms only knew how to do with a real orchestra: that is what he later showed in the works of this programme.