Ecstatic expressiveness, a driving onward force and rhapsodic debaucheries: Sergey Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, presented by the composer in 1921, brings the young Japanese pianist Kyohei Sorita together with the Tonkunstler Orchestra and its Music Director for the second time this season. A much loved work by Johannes Brahms is the perfect complement. Johannes Brahms had unearthed the entrancing theme of the «Chorale St. Antoni» from Haydn’s Divertimento in B-flat major for eight wind instruments in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien (Society of Friends of Music in Vienna), and in 1873 transformed it into eight «Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn» including a grandiose passacaglia at the end. The orchestral work also made the original chamber piece highly popular. It is complemented here by three bestsellers: Brahms’ «Hungarian Dances», originally intended for piano four hands, ensured the composer’s breakthrough.

Because of the current regulations on Covid-19 prevention, our concert programmes have had to be modified. The original plan was to perform Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, but this has been replaced by the above work by Johannes Brahms.