Schnittke / Mozart / Grieg

Several concertos for piano were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as an adolescent in Salzburg. Seventeen more concertos were written during his time in Vienna, which is hardly surprising, since it was in this form that Mozart was able to present himself to the public as a great composer and pianist at the same time. The exuberant C major concerto, full of lightness and gaiety, is sure to give the Czech pianist Lukáš Vondráček ample scope to show his technical brilliance. A vigorous fanfare opens the only completed symphony by the Norwegian great Edvard Hagerup Grieg. The work was commissioned by the Danish composer Niels Gade, but Grieg was not happy with it and banned its publication. The symphony, which has been studied many times by music theorists, waited 113 years in the archives for a concert performance. Some movements of the symphony were performed in concert during the composer's lifetime, but the complete work was not premiered until 1980. The cherry on the cake of the concert will be the opening Polyphonic Tango by the inventive Alfred Schnittke, whose wit and artistry pushed the boundaries of the conventions of 20th century European classical music.