Romantic Genius

TheValse Triste was written to accompany the 1903 play Kuolema, written by Sibelius’ brother-in-law. It portrays a dance of death between a dying woman and the grim reaper. The work is a gem of a miniature masterpiece as it uses its small orchestra evocatively and effectively. Its central melody is memorable and the passages for muted strings that bookend the piece are both haunting and poignant.

 

A distant horn call is the first sound, inviting you into Brahms’ inimitable Romantic world. With his Second Piano Concerto, Brahms created music to get lost in - a vast canvas on which he paints scenes of serenity, strife, beauty and the human condition. Unlike the first, this concerto was immediately greeted with both popular and critical approval. It has the breadth and scope of a symphony combined with the masterful technical demands of a piano concerto. Many pianists consider it one of the most difficult concertos in the repertoire.

 

The Seventh Symphony marked an important milestone in Dvorák’s creative life. It was also the earliest of his nine symphonies to have captured and held popular approval, and it remains unsurpassed among his works for profundity of conception and consummate craftsmanship. Its dramatic flow from one movement to the next, each filled with a pent-up sense of inner tragedy and strength, is remarkable - a succession of inspired melodies are woven into an unbroken chain of majestic music with amazing emotional appeal.