Abonnementkonzert VII
Concert on 19 and 20 May 2025: Petr Popelka conducts Webern, Dvořák and Mozart with Emanuel Ax as soloist...The Czech conductor Petr Popelka can be heard with the Staatskapelle Berlin on 19 and 20 May 2025 for a multifaceted and in many respects ‘romantic’ programme in Subscription Concert VII. The programme features Anton Webern's tone poem Im Sommerwind, Antonín Dvořák's 6th Symphony and the Piano Concerto in D minor K. 466 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The solo part will be performed by the celebrated and multi-award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax. Petr Popelka, who has been Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra since the beginning of the current season, already worked with the Staatskapelle in the 2022/23 season, then for a concert in the Pierre Boulez Saal. The dress rehearsal for the concert on 19 May 2025 at 11.00 a.m. is open to school classes.
Anton Webern wrote his tone poem Im Sommerwind, entitled ‘Idyll for large orchestra’, at the age of just 20, before he was encouraged by Arnold Schoenberg to explore new musical worlds. Accordingly, this early composition follows the late Romantic tradition, inspired by a poem by Bruno Wille in which he traces images of nature, which Webern sets in colourful tones.
In his Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, premiered in 1785, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart broke new ground and opened up a musical drama and depth that was already reminiscent of later works such as Don Giovanni or the Requiem. This composition marks the first highlight in the impressive series of his Viennese piano concertos.
Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 6, composed in 1880, became one of the composer's greatest successes. As so often in his oeuvre, the Bohemian composer drew on sounds and melodies from the folklore of his homeland, but also shows his intensive engagement with the models of Romantic symphonic music, in particular Johannes Brahms.