Arnold Schoenberg
Theme and Variations for Orchestra Op. 43b

Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

Johannes Brahms
Serenade No. 1 in D major op. 11

Big shoes to fill
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 requires a knowledgeable artist who is able to adequately reproduce the special lyrical quality of this masterpiece. Mitsuko Uchida brings exactly this life-experienced “smartness of heart”. We are very pleased about her late debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin!
Johannes Brahms avoided the dinosaur tracks of the revered Beethoven like a bush since Robert Schumann asked him to follow in these same footsteps. The approaches included the first piano concerto, various chamber music genres and the two serenades for orchestra. Vladimir Jurowski will demonstrate with sound what immense quality lies in the music of Serenade No. 1 – beyond all “symphony preparation”.
One person who emulated Brahms was the now 150-year-old Arnold Schönberg. From around 1934 onwards, the enfant terrible of early 20th century music presented surprisingly purified works that did not deny Schönberg's increase in innovative composition techniques, but also remembered with pleasure and joy the tonal before, when Schönberg was still an ardent apologist for Brahms and in general the Romantic and Classical periods. Theme and Variations for Orchestra from 1943 are a charming example of Schönberg's implementation of Brahms' ideas of “evolving variation”.

Concert introduction: 7:10 p.m., south foyer, Steffen Georgi