Schumann / Tchaikovsky

Two captivating Romantic peaks, two stunning performers. Schumann's work was premiered by one of the greatest pianists of the time (there were a few at the time), who also happened to be the composer's wife and main muse. The beauty of their wonderful love story is only deepened by the drama of his last years, when Schumann voluntarily retired to a mental hospital, lest his distraction harm his beloved partner. Tchaikovsky's drama was no less a half-century later, and like Schumann, he may have voluntarily entered Charon's boat.

This evening is about emotions: Both Schumann and Tchaikovsky are musical exponents of the great, fateful emotions that swept Romantic art like a tsunami. Of course, the main driving force was the Great Love: Schumann composed the Piano Concerto for his wife and the love of his life, Clara Wieck, with whom he had to struggle to consummate his relationship because of a fatherly ban. Their happy family life was sealed by Schumann's overwhelming insanity, who, in his last gesture of lucidity, protected his beloved wife by voluntarily going to a mental hospital so as not to endanger Clara in her moments of madness. All the tempest of a great love is there in the Piano Concerto, one of Schumann's best-known works, just as the same passion fuels the first of Tchaikovsky's great trio, the Symphony No. IV. The Danubia will be conducted - for the first time this evening - by the Hungarian-born Gilbert Varga, one of the last of the great old school of conductors, with his elegant appearance and authority. The two melodious, accessible and engaging pieces in this performance promise to be a memorable experience for the novice concert-goer.