Symphony Concert Con Brio Würzburg

On a Journey

Con Brio plays Britten, Mahler and Dvořák

For its summer programme, the Würzburger Sinfonieorchester Con Brio brings together music from the late Romantic era and the moderate modern. The centrepiece of the evening is Antonín Dvořák's celebrated Symphony No. 9 "From the New World". Before that, the musical journey crosses the open sea with Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" (from the opera "Peter Grimes") and plunges into the depths of the Romantic soul with Gustav Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfarer". The soloist in Mahler's song cycle is baritone Jakob Ewert, a member of the ensemble at the Theater Chemnitz - equally at home on the opera stage, in the concert hall and in the recording studio, and a familiar face to audiences of the Würzburger Mozartfest. The orchestra is conducted, as always, by Prof. Gert Feser. Tickets are available through Reservix and at the usual advance-sale outlets.

In his opera "Peter Grimes", Benjamin Britten tells the harrowing story of a fisherman who ultimately perishes at sea in madness. The dramatic action is repeatedly interrupted by orchestral interludes, several of which Britten arranged into a concert suite under the title "Four Sea Interludes".

Gustav Mahler shaped his cycle "Songs of a Wayfarer" from the literary gestures of wandering and a longed-for but unattained love. The four songs reflect - as so often in Mahler's output - painful episodes from the composer's own life, and draw on the full subtlety of his orchestral imagination.

Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" earns its title on every count: the composer wrote it not only during a stay in America but also wove in motifs from the country's folk music. Yet in the end, the symphony is animated by the musical spirit of the Bohemian countryside.