Chopin — Schubert

Composed in a Hummlian model — although derived from Mozart — Chopin's Piano Concerto II in F minor is the quintessence of brilliant-style virtuosity broken by classical simplicity, stripped of sentimentality. Created as the first (only released later), it unquestionably represents a portrait of the young artist and a direct expression of his personality. Once a sonorous, once majestic march opens the work with a classical double exposition, proceeding further according to the principles of sonata form. The orchestra does not even aspire to enter into dialogue with the piano, remaining fully subordinate to it, delegated to the role of accompaniment. According to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, the entrance of the piano in the nocturnal, dreamlike Larghetto “sounds like opening the door to some shrine of love and peace” — after all, Chopin himself admitted that it was created “in memory” of his ideal, the object of youthful infatuation. The final Rondo “captivates with an element of dance” introducing stylizations of sometimes graceful, sometimes Zawadiac kujawiak evoking the aura of rural simplicity. The premiere of the enthusiastically received Concert was Chopin's first major artistic event, and at the same time one of the last before his emigration in the shadow of the increasingly heavy clouds of the coming November uprising.

It is certain that the nickname Unfinished aptly describes Schubert's Eighth Symphony in B minor — piano sketches of a scherza have been found, of which only a few bars have been orchestrated, and a clue to the finale can be found in the music for the play Rosamunde. The failure to complete the composition could have been caused both by the composer's illness in the autumn of 1822 and the transfer of creative forces to Fantasia “The Wanderer”; nevertheless, the only two-part Symphony, premiered with great success only 43 years after writing, is referred to (alternating with Beethoven's Eroica) as the First Romantic Symphony. The achievements of the following decades of the 19th century are heralded in its orchestration — more colorful and dramatic than strictly practical — but above all in the overwhelming lyricism of the themes. Eduard Hanslick, in his account after the premiere, mentions the first part: “When the clarinet and oboe in unison took their gentle cantillation over the quiet murmur of the violin, a whisper was heard in the audience: Schubert...” After all, the composer gained greater recognition only after his death, so Hanslick's further words are all the more moving: “all hearts rejoiced as if, after a long separation, the composer was among us in his own person”. In fact, Schubert included in it, in addition to his impressive lyricism, his harmonica, his tonality and his characteristic laconicism of the connectors. The Eighth Symphony has been called “a treasure comparable to the great Symphony in C major, its swan song, but also to any Beethoven symphony”.

Concert co-organized with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute