Our honorary conductor Herbert Blomstedt

Abo C
Bamberg, Konzerthalle, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal
20:00 Uhr

Recording & Broadcast BR-KLASSIK

"Those who knew Schubert more closely know how deeply his creations gripped him and the pain it cost him to bring them forth.” In this concert, our orchestra will perform Schubert's Symphony in C Minor, which he composed in 1816 at just 19 years of age. This emotional work seeks to realise a concept of the tragedy in symphonic form: it contains passionate passages aplenty, but also repeatedly dissolves the gloomy minor key of its opening into a bright major, its beauty and cheer symbolising victory over adverse fate. As a fellow composer once said of Schubert: “He lived in music like a bird in the air, singing angelic melodies." This concert also continues our cycle of symphonies by Franz Berwald, an exciting artist from the homeland of our honorary conductor Herbert Blomstedt, who for many years has been a strong advocate for these unjustly neglected pieces. Berwald was a contemporary of Schubert and was largely self-taught. Unable to make a living from music alone, he also worked as a writer, orthopaedist, and glass manufacturer. As a composer, he developed a finely nuanced, idiosyncratic style incorporating numerous shifts in mood. His Second Symphony is shrouded in mystery – its original score was lost, only a short manuscript surviving, and it was not until long after Berwald’s death that it was reconstructed for full orchestra. The “Capricieuse” originally was written in the summer of 1842 in Nyköping, a charming little town on Sweden’s Baltic coast, where Berwald went on long rambles to take in the beauty of the surroundings. The symphony is thus a fittingly capricious composition full of freshness and spontaneity.

Herbert Blomstedt Conductor

Franz Schubert Symphonie Nr. 4 c-Moll D 417 "Die Tragische"
Franz Berwald Symphonie Nr. 2 D-Dur »Capricieuse«