Concerto for Piano (four hands) and Orchestra "Werther" (2024)
(Arrangement of Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 3, op. 60)

This work captures Johannes Brahms' unhappy love for Clara Schumann in music, as we learn from a quote that alludes to Goethe's Werther: "You may put a picture on the title page, namely a head with a pistol in front of it. Now you can get an idea of the music! I will send you my photograph for this purpose! You can also use the blue tailcoat, yellow trousers and top boots..." (Brahms to his publisher on August 12, 1875)

"Oppressive and gloomy music", which is drowning in an "ocean of restlessness", stands alongside the "unearthly beauty of the Andante", which is "surrounded by three C minor tragedies" (Austrian pianist Claus-Christian Schuster).

My arrangement was written in 2023/24 and, like its predecessor, the Brahms / Dünser Concerto for Piano (four hands) and String Orchestra op. 25, is dedicated to the piano duo Silver-Garburg, who have performed it all over the world (Musikverein Vienna, Festspielhaus Salzburg, KKL Lucerne, etc.) and have also recorded it with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. This is also a special highlight in Brahms' oeuvre, which can win over new audiences thanks to the larger instrumental setting and also provides piano duos with a new repertoire piece for piano four hands and orchestra. As with the previous work, the concertante element bubbling under the surface and its unleashing appealed to me; the musical content, the compositional richness and the density of the movement create a concerto with a symphonic Brahms sound through the orchestration for orchestra.

Richard Dünser