Symphony concert 2

Franz Schubert was just sixteen years old when he completed his First Symphony in D major. An early work? Perhaps an act of liberation on the occasion of his leaving school, which he was not fond of. Under the perceptible influence of Mozart and Haydn, the composer, who died much too early, can already be recognised. Unlike Schubert, who was able to hear his First in the same year he completed it, Wagner never experienced a performance of his Romantic opera »The Fairies«: the opera, conceived by Wagner at the age of twenty, was performed for the first time only five years after his death. Already in this early piece, as in his later music dramas, the bliss of happiness cannot be attained by mortals on earth – even if Wagner still recounts this theme here with musical means familiar from Spohr, Weber or Marschner. The songs and duets by Robert Schumann that conductor Philipp von Steinaecker and composer Stefano Gervasoni have combined to form a love triangle and a »betrayal of love« also address the joys and pains of love: one woman is torn between two men. Who will she decide in favour of? A composed interpretation of the Romantic era and a kick-off rich in associations to the Gürzenich Orchestra’s Schumann focus, with a splendid trio of singers.