Schumann & Strauss

Singing and dancing: These are what links everything in this exuberant programme under the direction of Fabien Gabel. In his «Concert Piece for Violoncello with Orchestra Accompaniment», Robert Schumann brought to life the Romantic tendency to blur boundaries and create overarching connections over three movements: Tonkunstler debutante Anastasia Kobekina and her cello sing us through a work that develops from melancholy through dreamy rapture to a spirited finale. Johannes Brahms, by contrast, delivered an ironic potpourri of student songs when he thanked the University of Wroclaw for his honorary doctorate with the gift of his Academic Festival Overture. After the interval, three-four time dominates: In his «Rosenkavalier», Richard Strauss made a magnificent transplant of the grand waltz into opera and into the age of Maria Theresa. And Maurice Ravel retrospectively celebrated the era of the Viennese waltz in imperial Vienna shortly before its downfall: «La Valse» becomes a dance on the volcano.