Chamber Orchestra of Europe
|
Bernard Haitink
conductor
|
Emanuel Ax
piano
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
More than twenty years after his First Piano Concerto, Brahms assayed the genre a second time, announcing it to his friends with ironic understatement as “a very small piano concerto” or even as “a few trivial piano pieces.” Quite the opposite in fact: the Second Concerto is something like an encyclopedia of piano artistry, challenging its soloist to the extreme. With Emanuel Ax, though, you forget about the fiendish difficulties behind the notes. “When Ax plays his beloved Brahms, for example, the Second Piano Concerto, then you marvel at the eloquence of his gestures, his transparent sound, and his subtly organized approach he can bring to this work which often sounds too tight and cramped,” wrote the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.” Instead of 20 years, LUCERNE FESTIVAL audiences only need to wait three days after hearing the First Piano Concerto performed to encounter the “small” Second Concerto, once more with its ideal interpreter, Emanuel Ax.
Main Sponsor
Buy Tickets
Tickets can only be purchased over the phone (+41 (41) 226 44 80) or at the box office. The box office opens one hour before the concert begins, except in the case of concerts with introductory talks, when it opens half an hour before the talk.
Wheelchair tickets may be ordered by phone +41 41 226 44 80 from Monday to Friday 10 a.m. till 5 p.m.
View All Events