Spectacle vs. content: Alexander Gavrylyuk plays Schumann

Pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, a regular guest at the NTR Saturday Matinee, plays Schumann's little "piano-like" Piano Concerto. And did you already know Schubert's Seventh?

Schumann demands collaboration

"A piano concerto without a piano," thought Liszt. Nor did other contemporaries understand why Robert Schumann had not turned his only solo piano concerto into a virtuoso spectacle. But far more than finger-snapping tricks, Schumann focused on the symbiosis of soloist and orchestra, and the solidity of thematic construction.

Schubert's 'Unfinished' Completed

Twenty years earlier, Schubert had also envisioned an orchestral structure of unseen proportions with his Seventh Symphony. But the score did not live up to his expectations, and the symphony remained unfinished. What remains: a four-movement sketch, of which only the slow introduction and a fragment of the opening movement are orchestrated. Taking cues from Schubert, quite a few composers - including Schubert specialist Brian Newbould - have since given their own interpretation of the score.