The concert opens with Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante featuring Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra soloists on oboe, bassoon, violin, and cello. Then comes Schumann’s festive Symphony No. 1, “The Spring,” a work composed soon after his marriage and his first daughter’s birth. Finally, Sir András Schiff takes the stage for the concert’s culminating piece: Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1. The youthful work was initially met with mixed reviews: a Leipzig critic even wrote after the second performance that the concerto “cannot give pleasure”! The concerto’s popularity has progressively grown, and it is now one of Brahms’ most popular works.