Yulianna Avdeeva’s previous visit to the NFM was in 2018, when we celebrated the centenary of Polish independence. Back then, she performed one of Chopin’s piano concertos. The winner of the First Prize at the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, she also has recordings of works by Mieczysław Weinberg and Władysław Szpilman to her credit. During the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra season finale, Avdeeva will join this superb string orchestra in the concertos by Alfred Schnittke and Felix Mendelssohn.

The evening’s programme will range from brilliant, light classical music to its 20th-century reinterpretations. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Divertimento undoubtedly falls into the former category. The piece, written for string quartet or string orchestra, was composed in 1772. The sixteen-year-old Mozart wrote it in Salzburg, after his travels to the Italian Peninsula. Felix Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto in D minor, in turn, is the work of a fourteen-year-old genius. By 1823, the Romantic prodigy was already a brilliant pianist and violinist, but also an interlocutor of Goethe and a philosopher. Mastering the technique of the two solo instruments, the adolescent Mendelssohn created a captivating, truly virtuosic composition, filled with a full range of emotions.

During the height of the Third Reich’s power, in 1942, Richard Strauss’s last opera, Capriccio, premiered in Munich. The performance begins with the performance of a sextet authored by the protagonist. This strange, self-referential and stylised work witnessed some of the most horrific chapters of history, and the opening chamber piece sounds like an echo of ancient beauty from better times. Alfred Schnittke’s 1979 concerto is a mature endeavour referencing several styles and forms. Formally, it draws on both the sonata and the variations. In this music, you can hear romantic, even classical piano textures, references to Orthodox chant, jazz improvisation, dance, grand climaxes, and muted alienation. Yet each time, a meaning slips away before it is fully expressed. However, the ending, according to the composer, suggests hope...