Daniel Harding in conversation with Matthew Hunter (17 min.)

It was not until decades after Alban Berg’s death that it was discovered that in his Lyric Suite, the composer had hidden symbolic references in the score to his love affair with Hanna Fuchs, the sister of the writer Franz Werfel. The expressive gesture of the composition is correspondingly emotional and passionate. In September 2020, the Berliner Philharmoniker performed the suite in the version for string orchestra under the baton of Daniel Harding. In conversation with the Philharmoniker’s violist Matthew Hunter, the conductor explains that the second work of the evening may also be based on a hidden programme. Ludwig van Beethoven could, according to Harding, also have expressed the suffering of his increasing hearing loss in his famous Pastoral.