Titan

Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Concerto funebre

Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905–1963) witnessed many of the periods in the history of his native German at close hand, and not surprisingly, their horrors were reflected in his music. He refused to have anything to do with the Nazis, was opposed to the Soviet regime, and turned down any commissions from East Germany. Instead, he revised many of his early works, and sought to further the new Modernist trend in music by, among other things, founding a Musica Viva series of concerts in Munich. Though the composer of eight symphonies, he is undoubtedly best known for his one and only violin concerto, the Concerto funebre of 1939/1959. “I wanted to write down everything I thought and felt,” he said in 1959, “and that resulted in form and melody”.

The concerto crystallises the horrors of the time it was written and is in four movements performed without a break. The first expresses Hartmann’s compassion for the Czechoslovaks after the Nazi annexation in 1938 with a quotation from the Czech Hussite hymn Ye who are warriors of God, and the third for the victims of St Petersburg’s Bloody Sunday in 1905. The sung funeral march in the fourth movement recalls a melody also used by Shostakovich in his Symphony. No. 11 (The Year 1905).

Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 1 in D major “The Titan”

Though greatly revered during his lifetime as a conductor, Gustav Mahler has really only received his due recognition since the Second World War. On setting to work on his Symphony no. 1 in the 1880s, he originally called it a Symphonic Poem. After its premiere in Budapest in 1889 it acquired the name The Titan, alluding to the novel of the same name by Jean Paul. Not until 1896 did Mahler finally call it a Symphony, at the same time reducing the number of movements from five to four by deleting the second, Blumine.

Before its premiere he had told a friend it had elements that would undoubtedly puzzle his audience, and it does indeed reflect his “maximal” aesthetic in all its diversity. 

Before its premiere he had told a friend it had elements that would undoubtedly puzzle his audience, and it does indeed reflect his “maximal” aesthetic in all its diversity. In addition to echoes of Beethoven and Schubert it has features that point more to the Modernism of the 20th century than to Late Romanticism. It also borrows themes from his Lieder eines fahrenden Geselle song cycle and is characterized by youthful optimism and a delicate, pantheistic feeling for nature. 

Mahler described the first movement as nature awakening, complete with trilling birds and brass-band fanfares. The second is reminiscent of a folk dance with an idyllic trio, the third a funeral march inspired by a cartoon of forest beasts bearing the body of a huntsman to his grave and assigning the main theme to a double bass. The finale is passionate and stormy and ends on a jubilant note.

Veronika Eberle

Veronika Eberle’s exceptional talent and the poise and maturity of her musicianship have been recognised by many of the world’s finest orchestras, venues, and festivals, as well as by some of the most eminent conductors. Sir Simon Rattle’s introduction of Eberle, aged just 16, to a packed Salzburg Festspielhaus in a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker brought her to international attention. Since then, she has collaborated with leading orchestras including the London Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle, the Montreal Symphony under Kent Nagano, and the Hessischer Rundfunk with Paavo Järvi. 

This season includes a United States tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe performing Brahms’s Double Concerto with Jean-Guihen Queyras and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as a performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto with the Cologne Philharmonic conducted by Anja Bihlmaier. Veronika Eberle plays the 1693 “Ries” Stradivarius, generously loaned by the Reinhold Würth Musikstiftung gGmbH.

Anja Bihlmaier

Anja Bihlmaier is the Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic starting September 2024. She has been the Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, Netherlands. From autumn 2020 to spring 2023, she served as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland. Bihlmaier broke glass ceilings as the first woman to hold these positions in both The Hague and Lahti.

This season, Bihlmaier will appear with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony, to name a few. Following their debut in the 2022–23 season, Bihlmaier now returns to the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Besides her diverse orchestral repertoire, she is also a passionate advocate for opera, with 15 years of experience in the field.

Anja Bihlmaier, born in 1978 in Germany, studied at the Freiburg Conservatory of Music and the Salzburg Mozarteum.

Pia Antikainen, Anna Nurmio