Romance, Poetry, and Valentines

This romantic program will feature music by four composers whose sound world was very much inspired by poetry, the human voice, and one another: Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, and Viktor Ullman. The concert will open with a performance of Brahms Nanie, gorgeous music set to the poem Nanie by Friedrich Schiller, whose text will be sung by the Nielsen Chorale. The concert will close with Robert Schumann’s 4th symphony, the poet of the piano, and also an inspiration to Brahms. Also on the program is a short work by Gustav Mahler, whose music was heavily influenced by both Brahms and Schumann. The work is Blumine, which was intended to be the slow movement of his first symphony. The concerto for the program is by the 20th century composer Viktor Ullmann, a composer who can be seen as a direct continuation to the music of Gustav Mahler. This piano concerto was written shortly before Ullmann was deported to the concentration camp of Terezin, and shows the magnitude of the genius caliber of this forgotten composer.