Oslo Philharmonic - Mozart, Nordheim and Schumann

Text from the organiser:

Mozart and Schumann’s Symphonies

Arvid Engegård conducts symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Robert Schumann which, each in their own way, renewed the symphonic genre and gave it deeper, darker undertones: Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4. Between the symphonies, Arne Nordheim’s reflective memorial work Nachruf for strings will be performed.

Programme:

Mozart: Symphony No. 40

Nordheim: Nachruf

– interval –

Schumann: Symphony No. 4

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) wrote Symphony No. 40 during a few busy summer weeks in 1788, shortly after the death of his daughter. The symphony opens with one of Mozart’s most famous melodies, marked by a restless and unsettled mood. Echoing the Sturm und Drang literature of the time, the symphony gives voice to conflicted and at times turbulent emotions.

In October 1956, Arne Nordheim (1931–2010) achieved a breakthrough in Norwegian musical life when his String Quartet No. 1 was premiered in Oslo. From the 1960s onwards, Nordheim attracted most attention for his innovative use of electronic elements, but in 1975 he reworked the final movement of the quartet into Nachruf for strings – Nachruf is German for “obituary” or “memorial tribute”.

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) wrote his first symphony in record time during the winter of 1841. A few months later he began work on another, conceived as a kind of counterpart to the first – darker and more dramatic. Ten years would pass before it was published as Symphony No. 4. With its tightly interwoven movements and cyclical structure, it is Schumann’s most innovative and influential symphony.

Arvid Engegård, conductor

Duration approx. 1 hr 30 mins, incl. interval.