6. Sinfoniekonzert «Kräfte der Dunkelheit»

Richard Strauss: Don Juan tone poem for orchestra op. 20
Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B flat minor op. 23
Paul Ben-Haim: Symphony No. 1 (1940)

At the age of 24, Richard Strauss premiered his second tone poem Don Juan in Weimar - a parade ride from crashing horn jubilation to enchanting woodwind solos, presented with an aplomb that still amazes today.
Tchaikovsky demands a pianistic tour de force from the pianist in his first piano concerto , which captivates the listener right from the start with its powerful D flat major chords. From today's perspective, the judgment of the great pianist Nikolai Rubinstein on this probably best-known Romantic piano concerto is surprising - he considered the work worthless.
Paul Ben-Haim, born and raised in Munich as Paul Frankenburger, fled to Palestine in 1933 to escape the Nazi terror. Influenced by late Romanticism, he was open to the musical traditions of his new homeland, which is unmistakable in his Symphony No. 1 from 1939 / 1940. But, as he wrote at the premiere, the "terrible devastation caused by diabolical forces" also left its mark on this music.

Conductor Marc Niemann
Piano Regina Chernichko
Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra