Manfred Honeck conducts Mozart and Franz Schmidt by Mozart, Schmidt, Franz, Fra (2023/2023), Dirigent Manfred Honeck, Konzerthalle, Bamberg, Germany

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was famous for his piano wizardry and composed most of his numerous piano concertos for himself as virtuoso – with a few exceptions: He wrote the E-flat major concerto in 1777 for the French pianist Louise Victoire Jenamy, who must have been an outstanding virtuoso, as the technically demanding work requires fast fingers. Moreover, with the heartfelt Andantino, it features the first minor-key movement in one of Mozart’s concertos. The internationally renowned pianist Jan Lisiecki performs the soulful playing for us in this wonderful piano concerto. Following this, under the authority of Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, a regular guest with us, we will be taking a closer look at the music of an artistic personality who made his mark in Vienna alongside other great composers at the end of the late Romantic period: Franz Schmidt – who studied with Bruckner for a while and whom Mahler described at the time as »the most musical person in Vienna«. In an autobiographical sketch, Schmidt expressed the impetus for his passion: »Music first found its way into my soul through the organ.« He ultimately left us a total of four symphonies, the last of which was composed after a severe blow of fate: in 1932, his daughter Emma died shortly after the birth of her child. Thus the work became a moving instrumental requiem: An orchestral world of profound reflection and powerful emotion – beginning and ending with a solitary trumpet solo, about which Franz Schmidt said it was »the last music one takes into the hereafter«.