Peerless Partners featuring Brahms Double Concerto

Peerless Partners

Rossini, Overture ‘The Thieving Magpie’ Schumann, Symphony No. 4 Brahms, Double Concerto for Violin and ‘Cello featuring soloists, Raphael Wallfisch – ‘cello Jack Liebeck – violin

This concert is all about partnerships and collaborations, demonstrated most clearly by the performance of Brahms Double Concerto. It’s a fabulous work and a perennial favourite. Music analysts have declared that its performance requires brilliant, equally matched players so this performance by a partnership of two world-class soloists will be a rare treat.

It’s often forgotten, or not acknowledged, that Brahms may not have reached the heights that he did without the support of Schumann. During the early years of his career, Brahms found himself being championed by Schumann and this developed into a close, collaborative friendship. The inclusion of Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in this concert is a reference to that friendship, it being Schumann’s last symphony, only completed a year or so before his first meeting with Brahms.

One of the characteristics of a collaborative musical partnership is that ideas are passed to and fro between the partners and little gems can be taken and incorporated into something quite different and unexpected, much as a magpie might espy a shiny object and swoop in to add it to its collection.