Season Opening 2024/25
CHF
About The Programme
«The power of fate» – «La forza del destino» hammers against the door in the first six beats of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera of this name. Three times in succession, we hear a threatening “E” in the brass and low bassoon that is repeated with the same weight of meaning after a short intake of breath. The strings then burst into the musical space with a dramatic, urgent motif that is once more interrupted by fateful notes in the brass, but is then transformed into melancholy, yearning melodies foreshadowing the topic of the opera: Love, injustice, misfortune, escape, vengeance and death. At its premiere in St. Petersburg in 1862, La forza del destino was a complete success for its composer. But it was performed there without its succinct overture, which Verdi only composed for a new version of the opera a few years later. Since it was given its premiere at La Scala in Milan in 1869, the full drama of this opera is revealed in the very first measures of its overture.
It was less the power of fate than the power of hypnosis that helped Sergei Rachmaninov to compose his Second Piano Concerto. After the failure of his First Symphony with audiences and critics alike in 1897, this sensitive composer was barely able to commit a single note to paper for almost three years. Salvation lay in the hypnotic abilities of a Moscow psychotherapist, whose sessions Rachmaninov later recalled as running thus: “‘You will write your concerto … You’ll work with great ease … This concerto will be of excellent quality …’. He always spoke the same words without interruption”. Lo and behold: Rachmaninov completed his 2nd Piano Concerto in 1901 and it is a quite outstanding work. He dedicated it to his doctor, without whom – so goes the legend – this music would probably never have been written.
A love for his Swiss homeland seems to have been a major driving force in the life of the composer and music pedagogue Hans Huber. He lived in Basel for many years, and he helped to make the city a major music centre through his work at its music school and with its choral society, and by co-founding the Swiss Musicians’ Association and the Basel Conservatory. Huber was also active as a composer throughout his busy life, and created a testament to his patriotism in his Tell Symphony of 1880, which offers a prototypical image in sound of his native land.
Lineup
OLGA SCHEPS, piano
SWISS ORCHESTRA
LENA-LISA WÜSTENDÖRFER, conductor
programme
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Overture to «La forza del destino»
SERGEJ RACHMANINOW
Piano Concerto No. 2 in c minor, op. 18
HANS HUBER
Symphony No. 1 in d minor, op. 63 («Tell Symphony»)
- 18:30Doors open
- 19:30concert (with break)
- 21:30Approx. end time
concert hall
Andermatt
How to get there
Details on how to get there can be found on the ANDERMATT MUSIC website.
barrier-free access
The Andermatt concert hall is barrier-free. Wheelchair tickets are available via email at info@andermattmusic.ch or at Andermatt Alpine Apartments at +41 41 888 78 00.
Seating on the balcony is recommended for people with reduced mobility. Chamber music concerts and New Folk Music concerts usually do not have grandstand seating: Here, all seats are accessible without steps.
The Andermatt concert hall has an inductive listening system.
Garderobe
evening ticket office
The box office opens 1 hour before the start of the concert.
Doors open / late entry
Admission to the concert hall is 30 minutes before the start of the concert. Late admission is only possible during applause between plays and on the guidance of the hall staff.
Discount
Discounts are available for children, students and members of the Gotthard MemberClub. Details about the benefits can be found here.
Olga Scheps, daughter of Ukrainian pianists, born in Russia and living in her adopted home of Germany since 1992, represents great sound culture, intense expressiveness and a gift for storytelling. She discovered the piano at the age of 4 and was encouraged early on by piano greats such as Alfred Brendel. Renowned conductors such as Thomas Dausgaard, Lorin Maazel, José Serebrier, Marcus Bosch, Tugan Sokhiev, Simone Young, Markus Poschner and Pablo Heras-Casado invited Olga Scheps to collaborate with renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Russian State Orchestra Moscow, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Prague Philharmonia.
Olga Scheps has performed to great acclaim in world-famous concert halls such as the Philharmonie Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Cologne Philharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tonhalle Zurich, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Cadogan Hall London, Suntory Hall Tokyo and the Vienna Konzerthaus. She is a sought-after guest at renowned festivals in Germany and Switzerland and loves to play in chamber music ensembles. She is an exclusive Sony Classical artist. Her debut album Chopin won an ECHO Klassik award in 2009. This was followed by the recordings Russian Album (2010), Schubert (2012), Vocalise (2015) and a recording of Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. In 2021, she released Family. This album combines famous classical works with new piano arrangements of well-known melodies and soundtracks, as well as previously unreleased compositions by Schiller (Christopher von Deylen), Chilly Gonzales and Olga Scheps herself. She is an official Steinway Artist since 2013.
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