Johannes Brahms in the Maltese Chapel

Johannes Brahms in the Malta Chapel

The program includes:

"Tragic Overture", op. 81

Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98

Governor's Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg

Artistic Director and Conductor - Anton Lubchenko

Soloist - laureate of international competitions Grigory Tadtayev, violin

The program dedicated to Johannes Brahms will be performed by the Governor's Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg under the direction of Anton Lubchenko and will present different facets of the creative portrait of the German composer, about whom Robert Schumann - his senior colleague - responded as follows: "Here is a musician who is called upon to give the highest and most ideal expression to the spirit of our time." Having received recognition during his lifetime, Brahms was extremely strict in assessing his compositions, which not only absorbed the main trends of the romantic era, while appealing to the legacy of the past, but also became a source of inspiration for many contemporaries and descendants.

The Violin Concerto was written in the picturesque places in the south of Austria, where Brahms loved to spend the summer months. Joy, serenity, bright lyricism and expressive danceability in the finale - these are, perhaps, the main images of this work.

The composer dedicated the Violin Concerto, which requires virtuoso skill from the performer, to his friend, the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, who in his youth introduced him to the famous Robert Schumann.

The music, originally created for the play "Faust" based on the tragedy of the same name by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, eventually became an independent work and was called the "Tragic Overture". While working on the score, the composer consciously avoided direct parallels with the characters of the literary work, striving to reflect the general spirit of Goethe's play, filled with sublime pathos and drama.

The Fourth Symphony, the final work of this genre in Brahms's legacy, is a true discovery and revelation of the composer. In his great work, Brahms simultaneously creates an arch into the past - to the masters of Baroque and Classicism, and throws a bridge into the future - anticipating gigantic symphonic canvases filled with deep philosophical meaning and sacramental ideas.

St. Petersburg, Maltese Chapel of the Vorontsov Palace