Freudenschauer

Interpreters

Thomas Zehetmair . Direction
Nikola Meeuwsen . Piano (1st prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2025)
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

Programme

Franz Schubert
Overture in C minor, D 8A

Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944, ‘The Great’

“Here, too, everything seems to listen, as if a heavenly guest were moving about amongst the orchestra. The symphony has had an effect on us unlike any other since Beethoven’s.” (Schumann on Schubert’s Great C major)

What a find! In 1839, eleven years after Franz Schubert’s untimely death, Robert Schumann discovered a stack of scores in the composer’s estate in Vienna, sending a ‘shiver of joy’ through him; among them was a Symphony in C major of epic scale, masterful quality and ‘bright, blossoming Romanticism’ that could not have been more impressive. Schumann hastened to present it to the world and passed it on immediately. Felix Mendelssohn would premiere it in the spring of 1839 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Just how early Franz Schubert’s genius made itself felt is demonstrated by the Overture in C minor for string quintet by the then 14-year-old seminary pupil – loosely based on Cherubini’s opera overture to ‘Faniska’, yet far more dramatic than that. The soloist for the concert evening with SKO Principal Conductor Thomas Zehetmair is the Dutch pianist Nikola Meeuwsen, first prize winner of the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition and already a highly sought-after virtuoso on the international stage. He will perform Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto from 1831, a sensation of the 19th century. It is dedicated to the young pianist Delphine von Schauroth, who made a profound impression on Felix and even inspired him to compose an additional passage…