Ensemble Resonanz / Véronique Gens / Riccardo Minasi

In this programme the Hamburg-based Ensemble Resonanz combines three composers who broke rules and set standards: Pietro Antonio Locatelli, sometimes regarded as the Paganini of the 18th century, was a lover of effects and dramatic atmosphere taken from the wunderkammer of Baroque instrumental music. Hector Berlioz submitted his bold cantata about the death of Cleopatra for the Prix de Rome, but it was rejected as being too daring.

The Symphony No. 4 in E minor is the last symphony from the pen of Johannes Brahms, the sum of his own resources as a composer, and of the entire history of Western composition. Picking up where Bach and Beethoven left off, Brahms recycles material from music history, combining tradition with ideas that are thoroughly innovative. Everything flows here from the outset; the music is a fabric where everything is in motion; all certainty is lost: the Fourth is a complex work that breaks through all manner of formal boundaries.