2024 SYMPHONIC SEASON OF THE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
From 27 September to 22 December 2024
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2nd Concert
Saturday 5 October 2024 at 6:00 pm
Conductor HARTMUT HAENCHEN
Violin STEFAN MILENKOVICH
Cello ETTORE PAGANO
PROGRAMME
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra in A minor, op. 102
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Symphony No. 4 in D min. op. 120
Orchestra by Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste
The second event in the Verdi symphony programme – a real highlight in this year’s European musical season – is a deeply romantic concert, embellished by the performance of two internationally acclaimed soloists: Serbian violinist Stefan Milenkovich and young cellist Ettore Pagano. The orchestra is conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, a pillar of the great German – and Wagnerian – symphonic tradition from Bayreuth to La Scala, from the Royal Opera House to the Opera de Paris.
An intriguing choice, based on the creative anomaly characterising both compositions, as well as on the complex relationship that the two monuments of German Romanticism shared through their relationship with Clara Schumann. Indeed, it is from the latter’s epistolary documents that the unusual genesis of the two pieces to be performed on 5 October can be reconstructed. The concert opens with Brahms’ last work for orchestra, dated 1887 and often referred to as the Double Concerto. The piece was composed to reconnect with the great violinist Joseph Joachim – Clara Schumann called it a “work of reconciliation” – and it is based on the genre of the sinfonia concertante for several solo instruments. This musical form was very much in vogue in the 18th century but was abandoned in the Romantic era and is still quite neglected today, which is why the choice to include it in this season’s programme, performed by two acclaimed soloists such as Stefan Milenkovich and Ettore Pagano and conducted by the excellent and experienced Hartmut Haenchen, is particularly significant.
Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 is an early work composed in just four days – Schumann was long undecided whether to call it a Symphony or a Symphonic Fantasy. The composer later revised it after an unsuccessful debut, which, however, does not make it any less original and interesting, although it has never been included in standard repertoires.
A further highlight of this concert is the perfect and well-tested chemistry between Haenchen and the Verdi orchestra, which has been constantly evolving and developing a unique and distinctive sound – a valuable and non-obvious feature even among orchestras with a long historical tradition.