Question marks

What does music know about us that we don't yet know? Music knows that we are full of questions we haven't yet asked. And that answers most often don't come as words, but as sounds. This concert offers three such answers.


In his Les préludes (1854), Ferenc Liszt created one of the first symphonic poems in history-a new genre that develops an idea, an emotion, a philosophy instead of telling a story. The inspiration came from lines by Alphonse de Lamartine, a French poet and thinker, from his cycle Nouvelles méditations poétiques. That's where the question appears that Liszt used as his title and starting point: What is our life but a series of preludes to an unknown song, whose first solemn notes are intoned by death?

Liszt doesn't write an illustration of the text but composes his own musical meditation on impermanence. Life is shown as a series of episodes: love, struggle, hope, disappointment. The form is based on a developing central theme, which moves through various emotional states through changing instrumentation and transformations.

Ernest Bloch, a Swiss-American composer of Jewish origin, wrote Schelomo: A Hebrew Rhapsody for cello and orchestra in 1916 in New York amid World War I. In the voice of the solo cello, Bloch heard the figure of the biblical Solomon (Hebrew: Schelomo), the wise king from the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is not a metaphor-the composer himself said that his goal was to translate the spirit of the Old Testament into the language of the modern orchestra. Solomon asks whether everything is vanity. He receives no clear answer, but his voice-the cello solo-says more than a thousand commentaries.

Schelomo: Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra by Bloch, performed by Truls Mørk (cello) and The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra conducted by Markus Stenz:

Johannes Brahms composed his Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, in the summer of 1877, in the town of Pörtschach on Lake Wörthersee. It was a moment of relief for him. After the success of his long-awaited First Symphony, which had drawn comparisons with Beethoven, Brahms was finally able to compose without pressure. He wrote in a letter: Here, the melodies flow so freely that I have to be careful not to write down too many. After years of struggle and inner turmoil, Brahms could ask a different question: is joy possible, joy that is not an escape?

Three pieces, three languages, three questions: Is life only a prelude to death? (Liszt) Is all of it vanity? (Bloch) Is joy possible without escape? (Brahms) Each composer answers differently, but in each of these answers, music knows something about us that we don't yet know.

Brahms's Symphony No. 2 performed by the hr-Sinfonieorchester under the baton of Marin Alsop:

The highlight of this evening will be outstanding artists who will take the stage together with the orchestra. The soloist of the concert will be Tomasz Strahl, one of the most eminent Polish cellists, whose artistry has been admired on the world’s greatest stages – from Berlin, through London and Tokyo, to São Paulo. The Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Antoni Wit, a world-renowned maestro who has performed with the most prestigious orchestras across the globe, recorded over 200 albums, and was awarded a Grammy in 2013. His artistic authority and experience make every encounter with him an unforgettable musical event. Together with the Orchestra, they will create interpretations that will sound like answers to the questions posed by Liszt, Bloch, and Brahms.