Shani, Bronfman / Wagner, Brahms

Philippe Jordan recently honoured him as probably the “best pianist of our time”: With the Grammy winner Yefim Bronfman, the Wiener Symphoniker have again been able to engage an absolutely exceptional musician as Artist in Residence for the 2019-20 season. Now, he will perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 under the direction of the Principal Guest Conductor Lahav Shani. Listening to Bronfman is like “being in a crowded room where a particularly profound interlocutor starts to talk and everyone suddenly falls silent to listen to him with spellbound attention”, the Chicago Sun-Times once described Bronfman’s effect on the audience. His playing is positively absolutist: It completely captivates everyone and leaves no room, time or thoughts for anything else. At the same time, it never stays the same.