Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester

The title 'Unfinished' is as closely associated with Franz Schubert's Symphony in B minor as 'Ninth' is with Beethoven's final symphony — everyone knows exactly which piece is being referred to. To this day, the circumstances surrounding the work's creation and completion – or rather, its non-completion – are shrouded in speculation. Although Schubert only completed two movements, he did not consider them to be finished, as he had sketched the beginning of a third scherzo movement and had conceived further ideas. Conductor of this concert Mario Venzago has delved into the source material, drawing on Schubert’s sketches and drafts to create his own four-movement version of a ‘completed’ work.

Mario Venzago is not only a conductor, but also a composer. He opens the concert with one of his own orchestral works, in which he pays homage to his Swiss homeland, a place of ascent and descent.

Richard Strauss's violin concerto, composed when he was just 17, is an early work. However, with its inventiveness, cornucopia of harmonic twists, and witty, exquisitely crafted narrative of the violin, it is already masterfully accomplished. This is also the view of the soloist, Carolin Widmann, for whom this concert is a labour of love.
(Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.)