10. Philharmonisches Konzert - Das Unauslöschliche

In the organizer's words:

The indelible

Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Stefan Blunier Conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann Violin

Dmitri Shostakovich
Two pieces by Domenico Scarlatti for wind orchestra op. 17
Paul Hindemith
Violin concerto
Carl Nielsen
Symphony No. 4 op. 29 "The Inextinguishable"

Having already conducted two extremely popular works of the symphonic canon this season, Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Bruckner's 7th Symphony, Stefan Blunier presents compositions that we do not encounter in concert all too often in his third guest appearance. Although Dmitri Shostakovich is one of the most important composers of the 20th century, with "Two Pieces by Domenico Scarlatti for wind orchestra" we experience him at the beginning of his career, before he was banned by the Soviet cultural guardians. Paul Hindemith, who was ostracized by the Nazis, is one of Duisburg-born Frank Peter Zimmermann's favourite composers. His recording of Hindemith's Violin Concerto has even been praised in the specialist press as a new reference recording: a work that shows the composer not so much as a feared "bourgeois terror", but rather exposes his accessible, lyrical side. The last movement of Carl Nielsen's 4th Symphony then features a spectacular "duel" between two timpani. It echoes the horrors of the First World War, which the composer countered with the "indelible" in the hymn-like chorale at the end: the elemental will to live, as Nilsen himself interpreted the title.