Symphoniker Hamburg / Kirill Gerstein / Guy Braunstein

»This is a symphonic theme,« Austrian composer Anton Bruckner is reputed to have said about the first main subject of his colleague Brahms’s Piano Concerto in d minor. And it’s true that the concerto, played in this VielHarmonie concert by outstanding pianist Kirill Gerstein, has obvious symphonic characteristics. After the interval, we hear Beethoven’s luminous Seventh Symphony, which has been the subject of many interpretations over the years; one critic even described the finale as a »drinking bout«. Richard Wagner saw it as »an apotheosis of dance«.