Andris Nelsons and Seong-Jin Cho

In 1807, already affected by the stroke of fate that was his encroaching deafness, Ludwig van Beethoven completed work on his overture to the tragedy Coriolan. In his Heiligenstadt Testament, the composer had confessed five years earlier: “Only a little more and I would even have ended my life – only my art, that is all that held me back.” Against this background, we can guess what appealed to Beethoven about this material: the Roman general Coriolanus is rejected by his own people because of his mercilessness – out of revenge, he goes to war against the Romans. Finally, moved by his own mother’s pleas for compassion, the broken hero commits suicide. The conclusion of the overture, which is self-confident for long stretches, is characterised by an unusual gesture for Beethoven: the protagonist does not die heroically, but rather in pianissimo, accompanied by the pizzicati of the cellos: humbled, despondent, defeated by life.

In his Second Piano Concerto, Franz Liszt used his characteristic compositional technique, in which a single musical idea forms the basis of the entire piece. The thematic material develops in a dreamlike manner at the beginning, and the movements flow smoothly into one another. Compared to his first work in this genre, the piano part does not dominate with exuberant virtuosity, rather it integrates itself organically into the overall musical events, sometimes accompanying the woodwinds, sometimes the strings. In a bel canto-like dialogue between piano and solo cello, Bruno Delepelaire, 1st principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, responds to Seong-Jin Cho’s brilliantly formulated interjections with depth of feeling. Andris Nelsons concludes the programme with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, in which – in the composer’s familiar manner – man conquers his fate through perseverance.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Andris Nelsons

Seong-Jin Cho