Fujita & Gražinytė-Tyla & Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) and Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) – the first a gentle aristocrat, the second a hulk of a man who deliberately never shaved. They met on two occasions and, despite their drinking sprees together, they never became true friends. Tchaikovsky summed up their relationship with the words: “I deeply revere the artistic personality of Brahms. […] But I do not care for his music.” Brahms did not truly appreciate Tchaikovsky’s music, either; however, unlike his Russian counterpart, he didn’t make much of an effort to do so. Nevertheless, his Piano Concerto No. 2, which Franz Liszt expressed as “thought and feeling moving in noble harmony”, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, whose closing movement was conversely described by a New York critic as a “slaughter, dire and bloody”, are works that have much in common. Both were written in the years 1878–1888, they share a purely Romantic character and offer a wealth of wonderful melodies, which artists such as the legendary Frank Sinatra adopted for their repertoire. The concert performed by Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, led by one of the world’s most fascinating conductors of the past decade Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and featuring Japanese pianist Mao Fujita, presents an exciting musical duel between these two geniuses and period rivals. Who will win over the audience this time?