Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 95 in C minor Hob. I:95 (1791)
Benjamin Britten
Nocturne for tenor and chamber orchestara op.60 (1958)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major op. 68 Pastorale symphony (1807–08)
- Andrew Staples Tenor
- Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
- Ivor Bolton Conductor
Introduction 50 minutes before the start of the concert in the concert hall with Michael Struck-Schloen
Heliotropism describes the phenomenon that plants always turn towards the light. Many a compositional growth also tends to seek a path out of darkness. However, for composers, it’s often worth starting out in the darkest of shades.
Joseph Haydn – who claimed a sunny disposition for himself – couldn’t stand basking in dark twilight for long. Not everything labelled C-minor contains only cold darkness. In the finale, at the latest, Haydn lets the warm sunshine in again.
Under the hashtag #Nocturne, people have been writing night-inspired pieces in rather dark colours for centuries. Benjamin Britten set eight nocturnal texts by eight authors to music, but despite much darkness, the last word here too is »sunrise«.
Sun-swept also describes most of the musical landscapes Beethoven conjures in his Symphony No. 6. Yet even here, the sky suddenly darkens when the composer evokes dark storm clouds and the low growling of thunder. There is no light without shadow – that is the nature of things.
