Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Wolfgang Rihm wrote his second piano concerto for Tzimon Barto in 2014. He was particularly impressed by the American pianist’s “sensationally ‘risky’” pianissimo. This inspired the whole first part of the composition. The “singing act”, which the pianist wrests from his instrument, dialogues by the protagonist and orchestral soloists, and Rihm’s special art of creating an impression of depth using the timbre and tones of orchestral sound, determine large sections of this one-movement work. Rihm composed it as a “musique fleuve”, a forever-continuing piece without a pointer, one which pushes, accelerates, pauses, occasionally casts around and waits for the impulse to continue. The virtuosity demanded of the pianist is part of its incisive sound and ever-evolving motion.

Christoph Eschenbach, who has already conducted the work several times since his joint premiere with Tzimon Barto, has intensified his collaboration with the DSO in recent years. He presents Rihm’s concerto in-between two compositions that come alive from the proverbial “italianità” or Italian influence in music: Mozart’s double concerto for soprano, piano and orchestra, a pearl in the repertoire of concert arias, and Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, which has absorbed as much influence from the antiquity’s classicism as from the magic and melancholy of the south.