Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Vito Zuraj
„Unveiled“
Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann
Sinfonie Nr. 2 C-Dur, op. 61

Sometimes programming is like a big puzzle – when one window of opportunity closes, it can take a while for another one to open. Together with the Ljubljana Festival, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthaus Berlin commissioned Slovenian composer Vito Žuraj to write the cello concerto “Unveiled.” It was to be performed in 2021 during the “200 Years of the Konzerthaus” anniversary season. The pandemic threw a spanner in the works. Now, at last, the work, soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras, who premiered the piece in Ljubljana, conductor Juraj Valčuha, and the Konzerthaus Orchestra in full force are coming together on stage in the Great Hall.

It will be followed by Robert Schumann's Second Symphony, which he composed in the winter of 1845/46 while suffering from depression. He found peace in composing, which became for him a “resistance of the spirit, through which I sought to combat my condition.” His friend Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy conducted the premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.