Manrico Padovani, Natasha Korsakova, Nordböhmische Philharmonie Teplice, Charles Olivieri-Munroe TABULA RASA

The English language draws a clear distinction between the terms “concert” (a musical performance) and “concerto” (referring to the musical form or genre). The German word “Konzert”, on the other hand, can carry both meanings which, due to an ever- increasing propensity towards simplification and sheer linguistic negligence on the one hand and a music scene long characterized by ignorance and amateurism on the other, often leads to hopeless confusion. The Italian word “concerto”, meanwhile, derives both from the Middle Latin and Italian concertare (to agree or concur) and from the Classical Latin concertare (to dispute or contend). While the first meaning was intended to denote a more or less harmonious interplay between singers and instrumentalists, the secondary definition of a rivalrous or contentious interaction between various instruments and instrumental groups, or between singers and instrumentalists, eventually prevailed for musical compositions in which “heterogeneous elements interact”.