Mikhail Pletnev & Renaud Capuçon

Mikhail Pletnev is one of the rare musicians to simultaneously pursue a career as pianist, and as a high-level conductor, notably leading the Russian National Orchestra which he founded in 1990. Associated with the violinist Renaud Capuçon , these two virtuosos propose a programme between Schubert and Beethoven , the enfants terribles of early Germanic Romanticism, on the last day of 2014 Easter Festival. They died one year apart and both began their work measuring up to Mozart, Haydn and Hummel, taking things to another level, touching the intimate expression of the self. A progressive and conquering self for Beethoven, who maintained a fervent hope for the future of man despite his disillusion. A contemplative, introspective self for Schubert, at times focused on his own suffering as the composer died young in the middle of an era whose doubts and funereal wanderings he had anticipated.