A single, breathing note opens the evening: Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vocalise unfolds without words. The adagio hovers between melancholy and warmth, between inner contemplation and expansive orchestral colour – music as pure emotion, beyond language. With his Fourth Piano Concerto, Ludwig van Beethoven leads us into a new dimension of dialogue. It is not the orchestra but the piano that begins – quietly, tentatively, poetically. From this intimate moment develops a work of extraordinary balance: lyrical expansiveness in the first movement, existential conflict in the Andante, dance-like liberation in the final Rondo. The soloist for the evening is Seth Schultheis, winner of the Beethoven Telekom Competition, who shapes this concerto as a dramatic dialogue between the individual and the collective.
After the interval, the curtain opens to reveal a world of colours, scents and adventures: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade is orchestral storytelling at its finest. Inspired by »One Thousand and One Nights«, a rush of sound unfolds with shimmering string lines, exotic rhythms and virtuoso solos. The sea roars, ships are wrecked, celebrations explode in brilliant splendour – and above it all rises the voice of Scheherazade, who saves lives with her storytelling.
PERFORMERS
Klassische Philharmonie Bonn orchestra
Seth Schultheis piano
Raphaël Merlin conductor
PROGRAM
Sergej Rachmaninow
Vocalise
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow
Scheherazade
