Concert

Concert time!
Friday night, Odense Koncerthus. The programme was Beethovens 4. piano concert and Shostakovich 14. symphony. Beethoven is invariably for me something special. Many consider Mozart to be the greatest. I don't disagree - his oeuvre leaves nothing to be desired. It is perfect in all respects. Beautiful music just (!) picked out of the skies, borrowed from the gods of music to bring us joy.

Ludwig - is another matter. Beethovens music is a work of extremes: jubilant joy in contrast with the deepest sorrow and bitterness. When he is joyful few other composers match him. His fourth piano concert leaves me almost in tears each time I hear it - ditto for his first violin concerto, I still remember the first time I as a young man heard it. Merely calling to mind bits from the concerto (Wolfgang Schneiderhahn as soloist) still gives me goose-bumps. I've had the fortune of hearing Anne-Sophie Mutters rendition of the sampe piece in Odense a couple of years ago - truly beautiful. I was elated for hours afterwards.

Alas - the concert: The pianist - Herbert Schuch (photo above - no, to the left!) admirably joined the task together with the spirited orchestra of bringing Beethovens melodiuos masterpiece to life - let me say they and he succeded with bravura. His play: subtle, energetic, pensive, joyful. It was all there my friends! We liked Schuchs performance so much he gave the encore of encores: Mozarts Rondo Alla Turca. Suffice it to say he brought the house down - sparks flew from his perfomance, technical brilliance and gusto to his style of play - Wolfi must have been pleased no end in his heavens. Listen out for Herbert Shuch out there, his star is on the ascent!

Shostakovich was an other matter. His symphony is more of a musical cyklus done over poems by Lorca, Apollinaire, Rilke and others, than a symphony in the classical sense. The sombre theme of the poems is death - Shostakovich isn't protesting against death, but death brought about by war, executions and violence. Sombre indeed, but very moving.