Commissioned by the Polish Radio for the Composers Forum in 1980, Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra by Henryk Górecki is a relentless raging tempest in musical form. Choreographed by the ballet impresario Balanchine, Paul Hindemith evokes the basic human moods, sanguine (bright and happy), choleric (quick to anger), melancholic (gloomy and dejected) and phlegmatic (slow moving and apathetic) in his work for piano and strings, The Four Temperaments. Written and performed in 1941-1942, Honegger’s Symphony No. 2 for strings alone (with trumpet ad libitum finale,) depicts the bleak state of mind of not just the composer but of a world caught in war.

Kristian Alexander | conductor
Antonia de Wolfe | pianist