A4 Kalabis. Mozart. Schumann

The linking of the composers Viktor Kalabis and Robert Schumann offers us a comparison of very different musical personalities. Viktor Kalabis was one of the most outstanding figures of the Czech music scene in the second half of the 20th century. He was influenced by some of the greats of the 20th century such as Hindemith, Prokofiev and Martinů. He wasn’t part of the avant-garde per se, but he made full use of the possibilities emerging from a looser tonality. His legacy lies mainly in symphonic and concerto music – he often wrote for his wife, the harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. 

The soloist of the cycle will be French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie. He has performed on all five continents and has established long-standing collaborations with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Dresden Philharmonic in Europe and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and New Jersey Symphony in the USA. In his native Canada, he performs regularly with major orchestras in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary. 

The gloomy character of the songs will be offset by the optimistic Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major “Rhenish”. The Romantic composer Robert Schumann wrote it during a blissful period spent with his wife Clara. Incidentally, the best friend of the couple was none other than Johannes Brahms: the trio perhaps therefore form the most famous love triangle in the history of music.