Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish") and Berg Concerto for Violin and Orchestra ("To the Memory of an Angel"). Andris Nelsons in 2018 conducts the Gewandhausorchester at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Here is the full program:
Steffen Schleiermacher Relief for Orchestra (This is a world premiere performance of a piece commissioned for this concert.)
Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A minor
Alban Berg Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Baiba Skride on violin)
Directed for TV by Ute Feudel. Produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2018, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
This was Nelson's inaugural concert as new general director of the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig. Nelson chose Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 because it was premiered in 1842 at the Gewandhaus with Mendelssohn conducting. (Mendelssohn took over the job of music director at the Gewandhaus in 1835.) Well, Nelson is not known for composing. But he could show his interest in new music by arranging the commissioning of Relief for Orchestra by Steffen Schleiermacher, a composer of modern music who has had many connections to Leipzig. One wonders about the meaning of the word “relief” in this context.
The Gewandhausorchestra is famous for its long involvement with the classics of German classical and romantic music. The choice of Berg’s Concerto for Violin suggests that Nelson will be as general director as interested in the present as in the past.
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