Programme

Brahms Nänie, op. 82
Brahms Ich schwing mein Horn, op. 41 nr. 1
Brahms Fünf Gesänge, op. 104
Brahms Vier Gesänge, op. 17

Interval

Brahms Gesang der Parzen, op. 89
Dvorák Symphony No. 5

Monteverdi Choir
Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra
(13 - 14 October 2022)
John Eliot Gardiner - conductor

In this performance, Peter will sing bass in the Monteverdi Choir.

The Monteverdi Choir joins the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra in two rarely heard but passionate works for choir and orchestra. The opening of Nänie has been described as the most radiant music Brahms ever wrote: a tender oboe melody ushers in the graceful canonic entries of the voices to the words ‘Behold, the gods weep, all the goddesses weep / that beauty fades, that perfection dies’. The piece is a setting of a poem by Friedrich Schiller, referring to characters from Greek mythology: Orpheus mourning his lost Eurydice; Aphrodite, whose lover Adonis was killed while hunting; and Thetis, who failed to save her son Achilles from death. Brahms wrote it in response to the death of his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach.

Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) sets a ballad by Goethe, with music of the most advanced harmony alongside unmistakeable allusions to the earlier German composers Brahms admired, such as Bach.The programme also includes unaccompanied works for choir and the magical Vier Gesänge, Op.17, for women’s voices, two horns and harp.

The Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra will also perform Dvorák’s Symphony No. 5, written in 1875. The work is considered largely pastoral in style with echos of the folk music of Dvorák’s native Bohemia shining through.