DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG OVERTURE. – RICHARD WAGNER

VIOLIN CONCERTO NO 3 – SAINT SAENS

SYMPHONY NO 6 – PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG OVERTURE. – RICHARD WAGNER

The story of Richard Wagner’s musical drama Die Meistersinger tells of the triumph of art over prejudice and is often seen as an allegory of Wagner’s own career, especially his battles with the critics. The opera centres on an annual song competition held by the Mastersingers of Nuremberg. In the opera the successful Mastersinger will win the hand of Eva, with whom a young knight called Walther is in love. He enters his song into the competition, but it breaks the rules. However, a leading Mastersinger, Hans Sachs, recognizes its artistic value and a new song by Walther eventually wins him the Mastersingers’ prize and Eva’s hand. The prelude or overture was composed and introduced several years before the opera was completed. Among Wagner’s most famous compositions, its popularity in the concert hall was quickly established. Brilliantly composed, it introduces much of the main musical themes used in the opera, and shows off Wagner’s genius in orchestration and counterpoint.

VIOLIN CONCERTO NO 3 – SAINT SAENS

Saint-Saens composed his third and final Violin Concerto in 1880. It is a work that stands out among the composer’s concertos because it goes back to a format with three clearly separated movements. This concerto, like the previous two, was composed for Spanish virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate, and it has since gone on to become one of Saint-Saens’s most performed and admired compositions. Our soloist for this beautiful work will be Piotr Kopec.

SYMPHONY NO 6 – PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, perhaps more well-known as the Pathétique Symphony, is Tchaikovsky’s final completed symphony, written in 1893. The composer originally entitled the work “The Passionate Symphony”, which was then mis-translated into French as Pathétique, meaning “solemn” or “emotive”. In 1893, Tchaikovsky mentions an entirely new symphonic work in a letter to his brother: “I am now wholly occupied with the new work … and it is hard for me to tear myself away from it. I believe it comes into being as the best of my works. I must finish it as soon as possible, for I have to wind up a lot of affairs and I must soon go to London. I told you that I had completed a Symphony which suddenly displeased me, and I tore it up. Now I have composed a new symphony which I certainly shall not tear up.” The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg, nine days before his death. Tchaikovsky struggled with depression throughout his life, but although the Sixth Symphony is a bleak, desperately sad piece of music, he was unusually upbeat while writing it: “I am very well pleased with its contents but not quite so satisfied with the orchestration. I certainly regard it as quite the best – and especially the ‘most sincere’ – of all my works. I love it as I never loved any one of my musical offspring before!”