Orchestre de Paris - Christoph von Dohnányi & Martin Helmchen

This programme gathers three masterpieces of the German repertoire conducted by an aristocrat of the baton, Christoph von Dohnányi. The 84 year-old conductor is joined by Martin Helmchen who, despite his young age, demonstrates utmost technical control and refinement with a rare depth of playing. From a teenaged and cheerful Mendelssohn comes the Midsummer Night’s Dream overture. He was only 17 years old when he composed the work, a feat that a critic described as “the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music". Beethoven’s third piano concerto was first performed by the composer himself in 1803 and has become one of his most popular concerto, filled with an intense dramatic feeling. It is also a concerto where Beethoven states his own style, stepping away from Mozartian inspiration. Considered to be his greatest orchestral work, Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 received poor reception at first. Innovative in style and in size, it was to inspire the romantic generation and was praised by Mendelssohn and Schumann. Conducted by the former in 1839, eleven years after Schubert’s death, Schumann celebrated the event in ecstatic article praising its “heavenly length”.