University Symphony Orchestra

Event details

John Stringer  conductor
Charlotte Brettell  piano

Anna Thorvaldsdottir   Metacomos
Grieg   Piano Concerto in A minor
Brahms   Symphony no. 4 in E minor

With its iconic opening bars – a dramatic timpani roll that gives way to a mighty cascading figure in the piano – rousing melodies and soul-stirring slow movement, Grieg’s Piano Concerto has been a firm favourite with audiences ever since its premiere in 1869. Despite its enormous popularity, the work was the only concerto that Grieg ever completed. The Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir's enthralling orchestral piece Metacomos was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Society and premiered at the Lincoln Centre in 2018. The one-movement work, as Thorvaldsdottir writes, ‘is built around the natural balance between beauty and chaos coming together to create a structured whole from utter chaos.’ Brahms’ Fourth Symphony has a notably profound and tragic character and was the composer’s only symphony to end in a minor key. Written in the Austrian Alps during the summers of 1884 and 1885, it was the final symphony Brahms ever composed. A month before he died in 1897, Brahms attended a performance of the work given by the Vienna Philharmonic. His first English biographer, Florence May, described how ‘tears ran down his cheeks’ after the performance and ‘through the audience, there was a feeling as of a stifled sob, for each knew that he was saying farewell.’