PC 3: With Ease

Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Soloist:: Herbert Schuch, piano

Programme:
Johannes Brahms,
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83 
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 
 

“The melodies fly so thick here that you have to be careful not to step on one,” wrote Brahms in Pörtschach, near the Wörthersee Lake in Carinthia, where he created the pastoral Second Symphony in just four months. Four years after its creation, the sketches for the Second Piano Concerto, a genuine symphony with obbligato piano, were created while Brahms was on vacation in Italy. Referring to the second movement, which begins with a beautiful melody in the cello, the celebrated pianist Charles Rosen wrote: “This is the slow movement that Rachmaninoff tried to write all his life.”