Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto was premièred by his wife, Clara, in 1846, just five weeks before the birth of their fourth child. It was coolly received, perhaps due in part to its understated virtuosity rather than the dazzling showmanship so often heard in works for piano and orchestra. Yet its second movement is emotionally profound with the piano and cellos finishing each other’s musical sentences. Equally intense is the slow movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, of which Berlioz wrote “One is seized from the first bars, with an emotion that by the end becomes shattering in its intensity!”. But both these pieces have finales which dissipate the emotional tension and humorously dance along to the end. 

This evening's concert is supported by The Dowager Viscountess Rothermere.