Sehnsucht

The waltz stands for an ideal world. At least on the surface, because when Maurice Ravel says ‘all waltzes!’, the dance soon turns towards the abyss and even beyond. La Valse pays tribute to an entire world, that of the Habsburg Empire, of old Europe, with a perhaps wistful look back. Robert Schumann's piano concerto is music of subtle nuances, full of poetry. A concerto that speaks romantically of longing. Ideal for the exceptional Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki. Schumann's concerto is embedded in two works of recent modernism: Kaija Saariaho's view of the starry sky Orion and the enchanted soundscape of George Crumb's Haunted Landscape. A commissioned composition by Polish composer Anna Sowa will be premiered. It is the first piece in the new series ‹Bonus Tracks› initiated by the Basel Sinfonieorchester Basel.