CASALS Prelude from El oratorio del pesebre
BRAHMS Double Concerto for Violin and Cello
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5
Three works of profound depth, beauty, and conciliatory intent come together in this programme presented by the London Philharmonic. To open the concert, the Prelude from Pau Casals’s El oratorio del pesebre marks the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Catalan musician’s birth, one of the great humanists of recent history. Conceived in the pain of exile and as a universal cry for peace, this prelude weaves together Catalan folk inflections with a contrapuntal writing that draws direct inspiration from Bach, Casals’s foremost point of reference.
Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, in turn, transports us to his summer residence on Lake Thun in Switzerland. The work was dedicated to the violinist Joseph Joachim and was born from the explicit intention of restoring a broken friendship. The result is an intense and deeply felt dialogue, equal between both soloists, which musically embodies this search for balance, parity, and reconciliation.
Finally, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 closes the programme amidst the majestic Nordic landscapes. Forged during the First World War and Finnish independence, this score, structured in three movements, moves from tension towards luminosity. Sibelius exalts nature through pastoral themes and melodies of high symbolic charge, among them his emblematic “Swan Hymn,” led by the horns, a passage that evokes the grandeur of the world and human optimism after times of darkness.
