During the concert, the soloist will be Kian Soltani, one of the most fascinating and appreciated cellists of the young generation. This artist, born in Bregenz on Bodensee has Persian origins. At the age of twenty-five, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and six years later he became a professor at the famous Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. As if that weren’t enough, he plays an Antonio Stradivari cello, and the richness of sound he can produce has been extolled by critics. Soltani’s performance with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will be one of the great attractions of the Leopoldinum Season Finale. The programme will include works by Gustav Mahler, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Max Bruch and Béla Bartók.

The concert will begin with the famous Adagietto, the fourth movement of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. It is considered a love letter dedicated to the composer’s beloved and future wife, Alma Schindler. This is evidenced by the lyrical mood of the music based on lilting melody, as well as Mahler’s quotation of a motif symbolising a love look, taken from Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. The Adagietto was also popularised by the Italian director Luchino Visconti, who used it in his film A Death in Venice.

Then we will listen to Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme op. 33 arranged for strings. The work was written at the end of 1876, and during its premiere the solo part was played by Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. The contribution of this young and successful German cellist to the polishing of the composition was so great that some consider him to be its co-author. The theme, followed by seven (or – in the original version – eight) variations, does not come from the beginning of the 18th century, but it is a successful attempt to evoke the spirit of an already extinct, graceful and light style.

The second part of the evening will begin with Kol Nidrei, one of the most popular works by Max Bruch. This title means “all vows” in Aramaic. It is a prayer recited in the evening before Yom Kippur. In the work by the German author, the cello solo is intended to imitate the cantor’s singing during prayer in the synagogue. Bruch admitted that although he was a Protestant, he was deeply moved by the beauty of Jewish melodies. The concert will end with a performance of Divertimento by Béla Bartók. This composition was commissioned in 1939 by Paul Sacher, conductor of the Basler Kammerorchester. The title refers to light music works written during the Classical period. Referring to them, the artist also drew from the folk music of his country. The capricious rhythm and allusions to melodic phrases characteristic of Hungarian music make it an original, fresh and surprising work.