Join BBC Radio 3 for a FREE invitation concert with the Ulster Orchestra as they showcase From Darkness to Light on the Ulster Hall stage in Belfast on 26 September 2024!
The programme opens with Webern’s Langsamer Satz – meaning slow movement – which was only discovered in a collection of manuscripts in the early 1960s, in the attic of a house near Vienna. Written in 1905 and originally intended as part of a string quartet, the work is steeped in the late Romanticism of composers like Wagner and Mahler, with Schoenberg’s 1899 string sextet Verklärte Nacht a sure source of inspiration.
A shift in century and culture comes next with a short piece by the South Korean composer, Unsuk Chin. Entitled subito con forza –“suddenly, with power” – it was co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3, the Cologne Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020. It features sudden shifts in texture, akin to Beethoven’s writing, and also includes references to some of his most famous works.
Beethoven links continue with the final piece: Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. He wrote it in 1845, when his mental health was seriously challenged. Yet, by the time it came to writing the final movement, his mood had lifted. The work reflects a move from darkness to light, so often associated with Beethoven’s symphonies. It also echoes the last song in Beethoven’s song-cycle An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the Distant Beloved’): a melodic motif which propels the work to a glorious conclusion.
The British conductor Jonathan Berman makes his Ulster Hall debut.
Webern: Langsammersatz – 11'
Unsuk Chin: subito con forza for orchestra – 5'
Schumann: Symphony No 2 in C major, Op. 61 – 38’
