Symphony concert 6

»The Fifth is a cursed work. No one understands it!« Gustav Mahler once groaned. Robert Schumann had a similar time of it with his violin concerto, which, urged on by violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, he composed in only two weeks. »You wondrous keeper of richest treasures,« Joachim had requested, »draw a work from your deep treasury into the light«. Schumann salvaged a jewel from his creative mine that was initially misunderstood and forgotten for decades. We had progressed well into the 20thcentury before Schumann’s Violin Concerto, with its extreme technical complexities, arrived in the repertoire for violin virtuosi. Isabelle Faust, one of the great violinists of our time, is the guest of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne. Francois-Xavier Roth will present the two »misunderstood works« to Gustav Mahler’s favourite audience. The only one that appreciated hisFifth at the moment of the premiere: the Cologners.