Santtu conducts Clyne, Beethoven and Dvořák

Programme

Santtu conducts two pinnacles of the Romantic repertoire and a vivid new piece by the Philharmonia’s Featured Composer Anna Clyne.

Anna Clyne’s Color Field takes its inspiration from a Mark Rothko painting Orange, Red, Yellow, the experience of synaesthesia, where certain colours are linked with particular pitches or keys, and the fiery rhythms of Serbian folk music.

Dvořák, too, was already revered as a master of his craft when he was commissioned to write his Seventh Symphony, premiered in London in 1885. It’s full of lyrical Bohemian spirit and bursting with melodies. Tender personal moments contrast with passages of intense drama – Dvořák wrote that his symphony’s themes were “Love, God and Fatherland”.

Acclaimed by the New York Times as one of the “most important artists of his generation”, Igor Levit has won awards both for his musicianship and his commitment to human rights. He plays Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, one of the cornerstones of the piano concerto repertoire.

This concert originally featured Lars Vogt in Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Lars was diagnosed with cancer in February 2021, and continued to perform and record throughout his treatment. He died on 5 September 2022, and will be sorely missed by all who knew and worked with him. We would like to dedicate this concert to his memory. We are very grateful to Igor Levit for stepping in. 

Concert supported by Daan and Maggie Knottenbelt