HKFO2016: A Tale of Two
Joshua Bell X HKFO: The Brahms Rhapsody

All BRAHMS PROGRAMME
Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 52
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
The Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

The journey continues on 27 November, as HKFO presents the second concert in our tale of two. In contrast to a French repertoire of mournful funerals and melancholy, Joshua Bell X HKFO: The Brahms Rhapsody brings the Yin to the Yang as HKFO showcases music of the Germanic tradition in a full-Brahms programme, with songs of love, passion and wedding gifts. Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer kick-starts the programme as the composer expresses his frustrated love for pianist Clara Schumann, none other than the composer Robert Schumann’s wife. This frustration evidently lingers on as we shall see in The Alto Rhapsody, a wedding gift for Robert’s and Clara’s daughter, Julie.

What follows is the majestic Violin Concerto in D major – a work dedicated to Joseph Joachim, Brahms’s friend and violin virtuoso, who also gave the work its première. Described by this star-violinist of the time as one of the “Four Great German Violin Concerti”, we are proud to present this remarkable concerto with the world-renowned superstar violinist of today, Joshua Bell, as soloist. Without a doubt one of the world’s greatest violinists of our time, Bell’s appearance will bring sore regrets if missed. Closing with Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, or what many considered as Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony at the time, we draw our curtains with one of the greatest pillars in classical music, with panache, bravura and unreserved joy.