Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

Johannes Brahms wrote his Vier Ernste Gesänge at the end of his life, after the death of his beloved Clara Schumann. He found comfort in Biblical texts about hope, love and the transience of life. Death was also the inspiration for Shostakovich's bitterly poignant Chamber Symphony. The result was a compact and forceful indictment, dedicated to the victims of fascism and war. A far cry from Schubert whose Fourth Symphony, despite its tragic subtitle, is full of nods to Mozart and Beethoven and sounds rather pleasant and colourful.

With keynote by David Van Reybrouck (in Dutch)
During this concert, our Season’s Thinker will shed light on the fascinating interaction between text and music and investigate the present-day relevance of biblical texts, for example these of Brahms' Vier ernste Gesänge.