GÜRZENICH ORCHESTER KÖLN – BRAHMS / BRUCKNER

GÜRZENICH ORCHESTER KÖLN

BRAHMS, Double Concerto a Minor for Violin, Violoncello and Orchestra op. 102 (1887)
BRUCKNER, Symphony No. 4 E flat Major, WAB 104 »Romantic« (1881)

Torsten Janicke, Violin
Bonian Tian, Violoncello
François-Xavier Roth, Conductor

It’s a reminiscence of the Gürzenich Orchestra’s great tradition of embracing novelty: The Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms, a monumental late work, was premiered in Cologne in 1887. The soloists at the time were the cellist Robert Hausmann and the famous violinist Joseph Joachim. The latter had great appreciation for the piece, however Theodor Billroth, a music enthusiast and one of the most renowned surgeons of the 19th century, judged it with bitter cynicism, calling it a »grim old man’s work«. In placing two soloists in front of the orchestra, Brahms quotes baroque and early classical traditions. Though it remains at that, for Brahms develops the Double Concerto in a grandiose, closed symphonic form.

Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 marks the continuation of François-Xavier Roth’s Bruckner Cycle, the »Romantic« quite possibly being Bruckner’s most popular symphony.