The acclaimed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has chosen three history-making works. The Overture to Der Freischütz escorts us into the world of Romanticism at the outset: when the horns enter near the beginning, you immediately feel like you're in the middle of the forest and can even smell the moss. But the music also turns quite macabre ... The great András Schiff will then play the most unusual of Beethoven's five piano concertos: the Fourth in G major. Instead of glorifying heroic attitudes or virtuoso daring, this is a concerto that calls for intimate feelings. Schiff sings with ravishing lyricism: in the middle movement, he even tames the wild Furies of the orchestra with his gentle phrases. The piano becomes the voice of humanity, triumphing over the turbulent world. Johannes Brahms himself was unimpressed by carping naysayers and responded to the pressure to "progress" that was in fashion in his time with a contrarian idea. The finale of his Fourth Symphony resorts to the early music form of the passacaglia by presenting 31 variations over the same continually recurring bass line: a marvel of exuberant invention and austere self-discipline alike.
