Beethoven, Berg, and Brahms at the Orchestre National de Lyon

On March 14 and 15, David Afkham joins the Orchestre National de Lyon for a program of Beethoven, Berg, and Brahms, featuring violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. The concert opens with Beethoven’s powerful and intense Coriolan Overture, written for a play, Coriolan, based on the story of the Roman general Gaius Marcius Coriolanus. Zimmerman takes center stage for Berg’s deeply emotional Violin Concerto, subtitled “In memory of an angel” and dedicated to Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius, who died tragically of polio at age 18. 

Finally, the concert concludes with Brahms’ lyrical Symphony No. 2 in D major, a piece Afkham has conducted several times to great acclaim. Of his performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, Bachtrack said, “He superbly maintained a balance between sunny and gloomy segments, triumphant enthusiasm and somber doubts (as expressed by James Sommerville’s horn calls), passionate Romantic content and Classical form, graceful pianissimos and heavy brass… Other American orchestras should follow Boston’s example and invite him to guest conduct as much as he is available.”