Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) 

Piano Concerto No. 1 in d, op. 15 (1854-1858) 

• Maestoso 

• Adagio 

• Rondo: Allegro non troppo  

Break 

Myrto Nizami (1994) 

One Minute Symphony: Fake Palindromes (2020) 

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) 

Symphony No. 1 in B-flat, op. 38 'Frühling' (1841) 

• Andante un poco maestoso - Allegro molto vivace 

• Larghetto 

• Scherzo: Molto vivace - Trio I: Molto piu vivace - Trio II - Coda 

• Allegro animato e grazioso 

Anja Bihlmaier conductor

Studies Musikhochschule Freiburg, Mozarteum Salzburg. 

Current position Chief Conductor Residentie Orkest, regular guest conductor Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights Recently she has conducted the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Symfónica de Barcelona, Basque National Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid and MDR-Sinfonieorchester. In recent seasons she also conducted several opera productions in Vienna (Volksoper), Trondheim and Malmö. Was permanently associated with the opera houses of Kassel and Hannover. 

Hannes Minnaar piano 

Studied Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jan Wijn, then took lessons with Alfred Brendel, Menahem Pressler and Ferenc Rados, among others.  

Prizes Concours de Genève (second prize, 2008), Queen Elisabeth Concours (third prize, 2010), Dutch Music Prize (2016). 

Highlights Soloists include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Orchestra of Belgium under conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Marin Alsop, Jan Willem de Vriend and Frans Brüggen. Gave recitals in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Gewandhaus in Leipzig and Musahino Hall in Tokyo, among others. Plays with violinist Maria Milstein and cellist Gideon den Herder in the Van Baerle Trio. Made his debut in 2019 in the Master Pianist series. 

Residentie Orkest The Hague 

Founded The Hague, 1904 

Current chief conductor Anja Bihlmaier 

Permanent guest conductors Richard Egarr and Jun Märkl 

Chief conductors Henri Viotta, Peter van Anrooy, Frits Schuurman, Willem van Otterloo, Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, Evgenii Svetlanov, Jaap van Zweden, Neeme Järvi, Nicholas Collon. 

To be seen at Amare, Paard, The National Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, De Doelen, TivoliVredenburg among others . 

Education Annual outreach to over 40,000 schoolchildren, adults and amateur musicians in educational projects. Part of this is The Residents, through which the orchestra brings hundreds of children from districts in The Hague into contact with classical music. 

Brahms and Schumann 

The two musical friends Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms are inseparable. The 23-year-old Schumann put the young Brahms on the map; conversely, Brahms took care of Schumann when the latter was struggling. 

Even though there were twenty-five years between them, Johannes Brahms composed two fantastic piano concertos. The First - for its time - giant piano concerto appeared when the composer was 23 years old and at the beginning of his career. However, this symphonically-tinged piano concerto was cast aside by audiences and critics. Only a quarter century later did the master, who by now had his sheep on dry land, dare to publish a Second Piano Concerto. 

The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1858, with Brahms as soloist, became a great fiasco. The audience was used to solo concerts where there was diligent and, above all, virtuosic competition between instrument and orchestra. But there was none of that here. Indeed, it seemed like a symphony! Actually, the young Brahms also intended to write a symphony, but he simply did not succeed, so he reworked the material into a sonata for two pianos and finally opted for a piano concerto. Today it can be counted among the most popular concertos in piano literature. Did this advance begin when Brahms performed this Piano Concerto in the Hague Building for Arts & Sciences on Jan. 19, 1876? 

The concerto begins with a powerful maestoso that seems inspired by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The passionate nature of the second movement reflects the tragic events surrounding his ailing friend, the composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856). In the Schumann home at the time, Brahms acted as a support and advocate for Schumann's wife, the pianist Clara Schumann-Wieck (1819-1896), and at the same time as a substitute father. Almost daily, he sought out his discoverer Robert Schumann, who had been admitted to an insane asylum. The Last movement has the same form (to the 

smallest details) as the third movement of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and demonstrates that Brahms liked to be inspired by the old models and put a new spin on them. Underneath dominates Beethoven, above dominates Brahms who saw "plagiarism" as a great compliment. 

Until 1840, Robert Schumann was best known as a composer for his piano works and songs. In that year he married Clara, the daughter of his piano teacher. It was she who encouraged her husband to compose symphonic music. Clara wrote in her diary, "His imagination goes beyond the piano. (...) My greatest wish is that he compose for orchestra, that is his field! Hopefully I can bring him to this!' He succeeded: in just four days Robert made the sketches for his First Symphony and a month later the orchestration was ready. At the end of March 1841, his premiere, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn, was premiered in Leipzig and was warmly received.  

According to Clara's diary, the title Frühlingssinfonie was taken from Adolf Böttger's poem Frühlingsgedicht. According to Robert, however, it was based on the poem Liebesfrühling. Originally, each movement had a subtitle, such as "The Beginning of Spring" and "Evening," but Schumann withdrew these titles before publication. Thus Schumann told fellow composer Spohr, "The music is not meant to describe anything definite, I was only inspired by the spirit of spring. And we hear that all too well: spring may begin as a prelude to a fantastic season in Amare without corona!