Korngold / Vaughan Williams / Brahms
Conductor: Marcus Bosch
Baritone: Nikolay Borchev
Norddeutsche Philharmonie RostockErich Wolfgang Korngold: Die tote Stadt Symphonische Fragmente für Orchester arranged by Thomas Dorsch (2023)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel (1901 - 1904)
Johannes Brahms: Klavierquartett g-Moll op. 25, arranged for orchestra by Arnold Schönberg (1937)Johannes Brahms' Fifth Symphony - as conductor Otto Klemperer jokingly referred to Arnold Schönberg's arrangement of Brahms' Piano Quartet - is on the principal conductor's podium at the February concert. At Klemperer's suggestion, Schoenberg had arranged this chamber music for orchestra in 1937. After the premiere in Los Angeles, Klemperer said that it was impossible to hear the original quartet, the arrangement sounds so beautiful. I only had to transfer this sound to the orchestra, and I did nothing else, Schoenberg explained. His intention was to remain strictly in the style of Brahms and not to go further than he himself would have gone if he were still alive today.
Before the interval, a kind of British Winterreise can be experienced with the Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This song cycle of particular beauty and emotional depth brings the much sought-after baritone Nikolay Borchev to the Volkstheater stage.
The first performance is by the former Viennese child prodigy and later Hollywood film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Last year, Thomas Dorsch compiled symphonic fragments from the opera Die tote Stadt, which brought the 23-year-old composer much fame at its double premiere in Hamburg and Cologne in 1920, paving the way for the legendary stage work in the concert hall.
