Classics with András Schiff

Sir András Schiff has received countless international prizes for his masterful piano playing. He also frequently appears these days as a conductor and soloist, including at this concert of pure classics.

When Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s father, a wealthy banker, understood that the boy was a musical genius, no expense was spared for young Felix’s opportunities for development. Among other things, he was sent on a grand tour that took him first to the UK. His visit to the Hebrides archipelago and Fingal’s Cave off the west coast of Scotland made a powerful impression on him. He transformed the experience into music in the melodically billowing and imaginative concert overture, The Hebrides.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, the Haffner Symphony, is jubilant, powerful, and full of playful melodies; it is also tremendously virtuosic, with rapid string passages and surprising leaps.

Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto is among the most central pieces of the entire piano literature, and has been since he performed it himself at the well-known marathon concert in Vienna, at which his fifth and sixth symphonies were also performed. It was Beethoven’s very last performance as a soloist with an orchestra.