Rising Stars 2: Iván Fischer introduces young conductors

Up to now, Victor Aviat’s collaboration with the Festival Orchestra has been as an obosit and assistant conductor. Through the Rising Stars series, he will be making his debut with two symphonies, one Viennese classical and one romantic, as well as a 20th century concerto. The two soloists, Erika Sebők and Clément Noël are the BFO’s Sándor Végh Competition-winning musicians.

Mozart himself described the circumstances under which he had composed the ‘Linz’ symphony by telling how, in 1783, he and his wife Constanze travelled to Salzburg to placate his father who disapproved of their marriage. On their way back to Vienna, they stopped in Linz as guests of the music-loving Count Thun and his family. Over the course of the occasion, Mozart gave a concert, but because he had no suitable symphony with him he ‘hastily’ composed one. The work is highly rated in the orchestral repertoire for its cheerfulness, the playful contrasts of light and shadow, its moving serenade, the adorably humorous minuet and the irresistible finale.

Arthur Honegger was seriously ill in 1948 when he composed his late chamber concerto for flute and English horn. According to András Szőllősy, the concerto is the composer’s “most lyrical, most balanced work.” Honegger’s Hungarian monographer emphasised the intimate dialogue between the two solo instruments in the first movement; the romantic, daydreaming tone of the second; and the kindly ideas of the finale. The concerto will be performed by the BFO’s Sándor Végh Competition-winning musicians.

Schumann’s First Symphony was not his first attempt at the genre. His Symphony in G minor, which he composed in his youth, was a success in his hometown. A line from the now-forgotten Adolf Böttger inspired the First Symphony: “Im Tale geht der Frühling auf” (Spring is coming to life in the valley). This is where the symphony gets its title “spring.”