1814: Congress of Vienna. 1914: outbreak of the Great War. 2014: Reflexion? Retrospect? The periods which this concert covers in a great arc from Viennese Classicism to the present day take in a major slice of European cultural history: the re-drawing of the map of the continent and its political landscape in 1814, the awakening of the nations and the disaster of 1914, and the modern Europe of 2014. Musically, these changes are represented by Schubert’s mood of a new dawn, Suk’s nationalist Bohemian self-confidence, Arnold Schönberg’s fin-de-siècle sensibilities, and Oliver Schneller’s highly rarefied new musical language.
