Program
Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 (1888)
Andante — Allegro con anima
Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
Waltz. Allegro moderato
Finale. Andante maestoso — Allegro vivace
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra (1948)
Frühling (Spring) — lyrics by Hermann Hesse
September — lyrics by Hermann Hesse
Beim Schlafengehen (When Falling Asleep) — lyrics by Hermann Hesse
Im Abendrot (At Sunset) — lyrics by Joseph von Eichendorff
Details
In this concert program, Teodor Currentzis and the orchestra musicAeterna will perform Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. Though written in different times and places, these two masterpieces are united by a shared theme: the human soul facing fate and the inevitability of death.
Tchaikovsky’s symphony is a dramatic and passionate work of 19th-century Russian Romanticism. Strauss’s songs, written near the end of his life after the turmoil of two world wars, feel like a farewell filled with peace. These works seem to enter into a dialogue: to Tchaikovsky’s anguished questions, Strauss responds with a quiet, luminous consolation.