Tuesday19.30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Great Hall

Langrée, Ax / Debussy, H. Gruber, Berlioz

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There is no doubt that Emmanuel Ax has great experience giving world premiere performances of contemporary piano concertos: as early as 1988 he introduced Joseph Schwantner's Piano Concerto to the public, followed by new works from John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Melinda Wagner and Bright Sheng. HK Gruber's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, however, is the first composition written especially for the virtuosic hands of the Polish-American pianist. Now this new work receives its Austrian premiere with the Vienna Symphony under the baton of Louis Langrée. On both evenings it is framed by Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and the Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, a work considered to be the first example of Programme Music. Ax describes Gruber's concerto as follows: 'It begins with a piano solo. The beginning is taken from the seduction scene [from the composer's opera Stories from the Vienna Woods] in a cheap cabaret-bordello. The dotted-rhythm of the band can be heard, providing a backdrop for the jazzy exchange between the piano and the orchestra.'

Performers

Louis Langrée 
conductor 
Emanuel Ax 
piano 
Wiener Symphoniker
orchestra 

Programme

Claude Debussy
"Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" ("Prelude to the afternoon of a faun"), Symphonic Poem L 86
"Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" ("Prelude to the afternoon of a faun"), Symphonic Poem L 86
1892-1894
11min
HK Gruber
Piano Conerto (Austrian premiere performance)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
2014-16, rev. 2017
23min
***
-- INTERVAL --
***
20min
Composer: ***

Location

Group

Wiener Konzerthaus

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