Zu Dir

Love can bring boundless bliss and fulfilment, but also profound sadness and pain.
Sometimes, they all come together, which doesn’t exactly make things easier. First and
foremost, love is mysterious, unfathomable and unpredictable. That’s how Sergei
Rachmaninov described it at the age of 20, the best age for overwhelming feelings, in a
sumptuous tone poem, which is very rarely performed – another mystery. The same cannot be said of Piotr Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, one of romanticism’s most popular works, a resounding portrait of a soul suffused with longing, and the acoustic drug of choice for all unhappy lovers of this world. The young Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev is a connoisseur of the proverbial melancholy of his homeland – and thus of the sound for these grand emotions. Finally, the fact that flirts of all kinds are simply a little bit more elegant in France is proven by Francis Poulenc in his signature piece for piano double acts. The keyboard duo Katia and Marielle Labèque, a legend with 20 fingers, works its magic, sending our heartbeat soaring – as, incidentally, love itself does.