Julia Fischer Plays Brahms

The masterful violinist joins the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Brahms’ serene Violin Concerto, ahead of Tchaikovsky’s brooding, dramatic Manfred Symphony. Manfred is an outsider – an untamed spirit, tormented by impossible desires and driven into the wilderness by a society whose conventions he rejects. Tchaikovsky sensed a kindred spirit in Byron’s brooding anti-hero, and his explosive Manfred Symphony contains some of the most uncompromising (and the most tender) music he ever wrote. Edward Gardner adores it, but it’s a hard act to follow. So the LPO begins the concert with the serene melodies and sunlit warmth of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, played tonight by a good friend of the LPO – Julia Fischer, a violinist who lives every note she plays.