Mariss Jansons and the Elbphilharmonie: a successful collaboration from the outset. The Latvian maestro made his first guest appearance in the Grand Hall just a few weeks after the official opening, and he has returned to Hamburg many times since. He almost always comes together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he affectionately calls his »Rolls-Royce«: as its principal conductor, Jansons has been in the international top league since 2003. In this year, too, it goes without saying that Hamburg features on the tour plan of the Munich dream team. Their concert programme consists of a risky combination, juxtaposing Mozart und Bruckner.
Mozart wrote his sublime and festive Concerto in A major, K. 488, parallel to the opera score »The Marriage of Figaro«; it is one of the large-scale, almost symphonic concertos that he composed for his own concert performances. Tonight, the orchestra accompanies the famous Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, who has had a unique command of Viennese Classicism since he enrolled at the Vienna College of Music at the very young age of five. After the interval, we hear Anton Bruckner's last symphony, No. 9, which he left unfinished. This is without a doubt one of the most significant compositions in the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire. read less