Program:

Hugo Alfvén - Festspel, overture op. 25 [6']

Edvard Grieg - Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16 [30']

Break [20']

Carl August Nielsen - Symphony No. 2 The Four Temperaments, Op. 16 [35']

The concert overture Festspel (composed in 1908 for the opening of Stockholm’s Royal Theatre by Hugo Alfvén, a leading Swedish composer of his generation) is only rarely performed in Poland – which is a pity, since it is a beautiful symphonic apotheosis of a noble… polonaise! In the composer’s homeland, there is a tradition of opening solemn events with this dance, and it is in this role that the popular Festspel is frequently performed in Sweden. The three pieces in our concert programme represent music from three Scandinavian countries. Edvard Grieg, father of Norwegian national music, composed only one concerto – which soon became part of the canon of most important and popular works in this genre. The Piano Concerto in A Minor, a moving and passionate work by the only 24-year-old composer (1868) betrays the influence of Schumann’s corresponding work, with which it shares the common key and the general concept of solo-and-orchestral texture. At the same time, it is permeated by the spirit of the North, though it contains no direct quotations from traditional music. Northern inspirations are evident in some of the melodic turn and rhythms (such as those derived from the Norwegian halling dance).

The Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2 (1902) is an attempt to represent in sound the age-old Hippocratean theory of the four human temperaments, the subject of numerous illustrations in medical handbooks and allegorical paintings. One of those illustrations (hanging on the wall of a certain pub) inspired Nielsen to present his own humorous vision of the four temperaments: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine – in the four parts of the symphony. The work, dedicated to F. Busoni, was well received and became one of the audience’s favourites in the composer’s oeuvre.

More information:

http://filharmonia.pl/koncerty-i-bilety_en/repertuar_en/symphonic-concert54
https://www.facebook.com/events/1384938968237269/