Three works, three soundscapes – and a theme that unites them: longing, dreams and passion. Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune opens the evening as a shimmering soundscape between wakefulness and dreams, in which colours flash into view and vanish again, as if the music itself were in a state of limbo. From this shimmering atmosphere, the journey leads to Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, set to poems by Mathilde Wesendonck and sung by Wiebke Lehmkuhl: five intense scenes in which emotion is transformed into language – and back into music. Even here, we catch glimpses of the chromaticism that would, shortly afterwards, lead Wagner to a musical revolution in Tristan und Isolde. It is the art of the art song as a seismograph: every nuance is spot on, every harmony shifts ever so slightly, and it is precisely this that makes it so powerful.
The finale is provided by Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique: the story of a young artist who, driven by obsessive love, takes refuge in intoxicating dream worlds. With its impressive orchestral palette, it weaves together emotional extremes and evocative soundscapes into a musical fever dream. Between tender memories, garish hallucinations and explosive force, a pull is created that is almost impossible to resist. Thus, the programme spans the spectrum from suggestion to eruption – from the floating opening to the grand, visionary climax at the end.
We would like to extend our special thanks to Phoenix Reisen for making the concert at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn possible.
Programme:
Claude Debussy: Prélude to L'après-midi d'un faune
Richard Wagner: Fünf Gedichte von Mathilde Wesendonck für Gesang und Orchester (Felix Mottl)
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
Artists:
Wiebke Lehmkuhl (vocals)
Markus Poschner (conductor)
National Youth Orchestra of Germany
Concerts:
10 January, 11.00 am: Berlin - Philharmonie
11 January, 11.00 am: Berlin - Philharmonie (school concert)
13 January, 7.30 pm: Bonn - Beethovenhalle
14 January, 7:30 pm: Nuremberg - Meistersingerhalle
15 January, 8:00 pm: Mühlheim an der Ruhr - Stadthalle
