El arte de escribir cartas

Writing a letter means leaving a trace. It is a way of speaking to someone who is absent, resisting forgetfulness and preserving an emotion before it disappears. Brett Dean takes this idea as the starting point for The Lost Art of Letter Writing, a work for violin and orchestra inspired by historical correspondence. Here, writing is transformed into sound and memory, as distant voices, private choices and political tensions find their voice through the violin.

Isabelle Faust, one of today’s most authoritative violinists, is the soloist in this intensely poetic and dramatic score. Her presence makes this one of the defining concerts of the season.

The second half is devoted to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, a concise, brilliant work of remarkable wit and musical intelligence. Here, instead of the heroic and monumental Beethoven, we encounter a composer who is playful, liberated and full of life. Wilson Ng conducts the Sinfónica de Tenerife in a programme where memory, words, expression and freedom find their most eloquent expression in sound.