The elephant in the room is Peter Tchaikovsky. Although his name is not on the programme today, all the composers in the evening are connected to him in a fascinating way:
Tchaikovsky himself would have preferred to listen to Schumann's deeply romantic Piano Concerto in A minor every day. Jean Sibelius, on the other hand, deeply admired the Russian master - many musical ideas in his mysterious forest symphony "Tapiola" are reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, while others point far beyond him. Finally, Igor Stravinsky's relationship with Tchaikovsky was particularly complex: In his "Firebird", he initially leans lovingly on his style before moving light years away from it and later deliberately imitating it ironically. There is probably no other piece that tells of the eternal struggle between darkness and light, chaos and harmony in such an emotionally dense way. Unfair, but unavoidable in art: the winner is clear from the start. In the end, pure beauty wins - with the only weapon it possesses: pure beauty.
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker; Alexander Gadjiev, piano; David Reiland, conductor
Jean Sibelius: Tapiola / tone poem for large orchestra op. 112; Robert Schumann: Concerto for piano and orchestra in A minor op. 54; Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird. Symphonic Suite (1945 version) (Source: Tonhalle Düsseldorf)
