'I've got to see real winters again, and spring that bursts into being from one moment to the next. I've got to hear Russian sounds in my ears again and talk to people who are my own flesh and blood, so that they can give me back something that I lack here: their songs, my songs.' In 1935, when the then Paris-based Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Second Violin Concerto - in which Julian Rachlin will set sparks flying, both as soloist and conductor - he did so in anticipation of his eagerly awaited return to his homeland, which had, of course, transformed from the Tsarist Empire into the Soviet Union. Yearning also permeates Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, written nearly 50 years earlier, not only in the slow movement's famous horn melody: a yearning for the certainty that, despite all his melancholy, he still possessed enough creative power to create another great work. It would become another symphony of fate. In contrast, yearning-filled rebellion against a merciless fate pulses through the Tragic Overture by Johannes Brahms, providing the dramatic start to Herbstgold 2023's gripping opening concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Shuttlebus Tickets:

18:00: Shuttlebus departs from Albertina (Operngasse 4-8), EUR 35,- buy here