Dima Slobodeniouk and Frank Peter Zimmermann

For the renowned composer and virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, Edward Elgar was the most important living composer: “Elgar will put everyone else in the shade. His inventiveness, his orchestration, his harmonies, his greatness: all this is marvellous.” Many of Kreisler’s contemporaries shared his enthusiasm for the music of Elgar, who was regarded as the leading English composer of his generation around 1900 – at least since his famous Pomp and Circumstance orchestral marches, the first of which became the unofficial English national anthem.

The period of Elgar’s greatest successes also saw the composition of his Violin Concerto, which, as op. 61, probably not coincidentally bears the same opus number as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. With its mixture of virtuoso brilliance and intimate lyricism, it was hailed at the time as the greatest work of its genre. The eagerly awaited premiere under the direction of the composer and with Kreisler as the soloist took place in London in a sold-out Queen’s Hall on 10 November 1910 – a triumph that ended with a quarter of an hour of applause.

Jean Sibelius dedicated his Lemminkäinen Suite to the “Achilles of Finnish mythology” of the national epic Kalevala. Its four movements trace the moods of various episodes of the hero’s legendary experiences. A particular highlight is the musical evocation of the eerie, water-filled realm of the dead, Tuonela, in which a singing swan – represented in Sibelius’ work by the cor anglais – acts as a ferryman to take the deceased to their final destination.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Dima Slobodeniouk

Frank Peter Zimmermann