Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester

In this concert, Christian Zacharias presents three musical giants from the musical metropolis of Vienna, known to our audiences as an accomplished conductor as well as a pianist who conducts in the 'play and conduct' mode.
Ludwig van Beethoven's piano concertos are as much a part of our core repertoire as his symphonies. After a long absence, we finally get to hear the 2nd Piano Concerto again. It is considered 'still Mozartian', although it already has the colourful modulations and rhythmic edges typical of Beethoven.
Franz Schubert's first six symphonies are considered 'youth symphonies', as he was not yet twenty when he composed them. They were probably performed only in private during his lifetime. The first recorded public performance of the Second Symphony dates from 1877. While Johannes Brahms considered Schubert's early symphonies to be of historical interest only, Antonín Dvořák appreciated them for their special melodies, "harmonic progression" and "many exquisite details of orchestration".
Some 100 years later, Vienna once again proved to be a centre of musical innovation. In Arnold Schönberg's 2nd Chamber Symphony, chordal structures can still be interpreted tonally. However, the transition to the dissolution of tonality, as the composer consistently realised in his later works with the transition to the twelve-tone technique, is already clearly perceptible.
(Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.)