London Philharmonic Orchestra: Omer Meir Wellber conducts Brahms

Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune*
Lalo Symphonie espagnole
Brahms Symphony No. 1

Omer Meir Wellber conductor
Augustin Hadelich violin
London Philharmonic Orchestra

* Supported by Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française.

Did Brahms love Clara Schumann, the widow of his mentor? He almost certainly tried to. After a seemingly irreconcilable argument in September 1868, Brahms wrote to Clara from the Swiss Alps, scribbling a tune he’d heard played by a shepherd boy. ‘High on the mountain, deep in the valley, I greet you a thousandfold’, wrote Brahms, and the beautiful little tune became the radiant horn-call that soars over strings in the finale of his First Symphony like sunlight breaking through clouds. Clara inhabits the whole monumental orchestral tapestry, not only in the special musical ‘motto’ Brahms wove into it, but also in the anguished love that infuses every bar.

Please note change of conductor.