NSOI: Mozart and Bruckner With Anja Bihlmaier

National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Anja Bihlmaier, conductor
Boris Giltburg, piano 

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15  
Bruckner Symphony No. 9  

A life reaching its prime, and a life nearing its end both speak to the joy of living.

The ‘passionate and ever-energetic’ (Bachtrack) Anja Bihlmaier brings her illuminating insights into the music of Mozart and Bruckner for an evening of grand drama and immense emotions. 

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 ventures into new realms of elegance, expressivity and sophistication with woodwinds to the fore and its ‘happy key’ of B-flat major making the piano sing with coloratura dazzle. Remarking on its fierce technical challenges, it was, he said, ‘a concerto which makes one sweat’. 

The always compelling Boris Giltburg, who ‘gives meaning to every note’ (Stuttgart Zeitung), joins National Symphony Orchestra Ireland as soloist.

A monumental achievement of late Romanticism, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 – his last – is a profound and moving statement of faith notable for its spiritual depth, innovative harmony, and orchestral grandeur.

Quoting from earlier sacred works, the slow, solemn, deeply spiritual and heartfelt Adagio is a cathedral in sound with a blazing climax and peaceful conclusion.

Presented by NCH