Interview
Emanuel Ax in conversation with Matthew Hunter Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax perform Mozart and Strauss
The epitome of classical music par excellence: the opening fanfare from Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra. In this concert, Andris Nelsons combines the powerful work with Strauss’s witty Burleske for piano and orchestra. The soloist is Emanuel Ax, who also plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 449, about which the composer himself said it was “of a very special kind”.
An unusual combination, but pianist Emanuel Ax already gave a guest performance with the Berliner Philharmoniker with this programme: in June 2001 he played the two works by Mozart and Strauss with Bernard Haitink as the conductor. The reviewer from the Berliner Morgenpost praised Ax’s Mozart interpretation when he wrote that Ax was no “lion” of the keyboard, more a dove that knows how to coo intelligently with his fingers. Richard Strauss, whose 150th anniversary of his birth was celebrated in 2014, admired Mozart all his life. For him, the Viennese classicist was the “incarnation of the pure artist” and a great role model, particularly in the field of opera. The Burleske, however, is in the tradition of Johannes Brahms. The work of the 21-year old Strauss brings together different elements: symphonic poem, piano concerto, farce. Witty, ironic, highly virtuoso – it is considered a challenge for any pianist.
When, ten years later, Richard Strauss composed his orchestral piece Also sprach Zarathustra, inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical treatise of the same name, it had been quite some time since he was a “young” composer. Indeed, with a series of tone poems he had already proven himself a master of the genre. Since being used in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the work’s distinctive beginning with a rising trumpet motif has acquired cult status.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Andris Nelsons
Emanuel Ax
© 2014 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
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