NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Piotr Anderszewski / Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

For his debut at the head of an orchestra, Szeps-Znaider has chosen what is perhaps the most popular symphony written by Tchaikovsky, that epitome of grand emotion and passion unleashed in music. In his Fifth Symphony, the Russian composer takes the listener from »the complete surrender to Fate« in the first movement and melodies full of effusive love in the second movement to a mood of radiant triumph in the finale. »Subito con forza!« (suddenly with force!) we want to cry when the E minor symphony’s main motif, so dark and gloomy at the outset, is transformed into a triumphant hymn in E major in the final bars. Composer Unsuk Chin chose precisely this Italian expression marking as the title of the 5-minute opening piece that she wrote in Beethoven Year 2020, making free use of several Beethoven quotations.

And Beethoven is the next composer on the programme: exceptional Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski returns once again to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to play the First Piano Concerto by the titan of the First Viennese School, written when Beethoven was still under the age of 30. Anderszewski once said, »The piano is a percussion instrument that pretends it can sing, but that’s just an assertion, you know. Even if one secretly wishes that it really could sing.« Anyone hearing Anderszewski play the concerto’s wonderful largo will probably have to say that he is simply toying with us here.