Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Anniversary concert 125 years of Albert Konzerte

Love at first sight - A new era began last year when the renowned Vienna Symphony Orchestra unveiled its new chief conductor Petr Popelka. After a career as a double bass player, the Czech-born conductor quickly moved on to conduct the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo, then the Radio Symphony Orchestra in his home city of Prague and finally the now 125-year-old traditional orchestra, which Popelka calls "the musical embodiment of Vienna". It soon became clear which soloist would crown his debut there. According to the conductor, his first performance with Anna Vinnitskaya was musical love at first sight. It's easy to imagine - given the "narrative art, the insane virtuosity and the serenity that her piano playing radiates" (Le Libre Belgique).

Also on tour together in the 2025/26 season, the choice of solo concerto fell on Maurice Ravel - also a brilliant pianist, but who composed his first piano concerto at the age of 54. Paul Wittgenstein, a famous son of the city of Vienna, had asked him to do this. He had lost his right arm in the First World War and was now looking for worthy challenges for his unbroken will to continue creating art. You can't tell from the concerto that there aren't two hands at work. However, the war and post-war years can be heard in the contrasts of dark urgency and dance-like frenzy. What a fitting counterpart to this is the Symphony in D major by Gustav Mahler, who later became director of the Vienna Court Opera: this is the first time he measured out his unmistakable, uncompromisingly individual sound cosmos between the romanticism of nature and a world torn apart.

Program:
Ravel, Piano Concerto in D major "Concerto for the Left Hand"
Mahler, Symphony No. 1 in D major "Titan"

Instrumentation:
Anna Vinnitskaya, piano
Petr Popelka, conductor
Wiener Symphoniker

9.15 pm Reception in the foyer: greetings and congratulations from Martin Horn, Lord Mayor of the City of Freiburg, brass ensemble of the Wiener Symphoniker and others.

With the kind support of the Freunde und Förderer der Albert Konzerte e.V.

EUR 125,- / 112,- / 93,- / 69,- / 53,- incl. fees

Wiener Symphoniker | Photo © Peter Rigaud