1. Sinfoniekonzert

In the organizer's words:

"Tristesse and rays of sunshine"

Lili Boulanger
D'un soir triste (orchestral version by Camille Pépin)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major op. 15

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Symphony No. 4 in A major op. 90 MWV N 16 "Italian"

Gioachino Rossini
Overture to William Tell

General Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing introduces himself to the Hagen audience in his inaugural concert with works from the classical to the modern era.

In 1913, aged just 19, she was the first woman to win the composition prize of the Prix de Rome; she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24: Despite her short life, Lili Boulanger's works bear witness to her outstanding talent and great musical maturity. She completed her best-known piece D'un soir triste ("Of a sad evening") in the last weeks of her life. A feeling of sadness and an all-consuming darkness dominate the work, but eventually give way to restrained rays of sunshine.

Ludwig van Beethoven was also just 24 when he composed his first piano concerto, demonstrating his extraordinary ability as a composer and pianist. The Rhinelander's symphonic style can already be clearly heard; at the same time, the relationship to his role model Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is still unmistakable. With this official debut of the Bonn genius, piano star David Fray makes his debut as Hagen's Artist in Residence.

Mendelssohn's dance-like Fourth "Italian" Symphony is sun-drenched and lively, dispelling all fog of gloom with its scorching heat. In addition to the classical minuet, the Roman jumping dance Saltarello and the Neapolitan Tarantella exude a regional folkloristic flavor and whisk us away to the "land of German longing".

Gioachino Rossini came from there. However, his last opera, William Tell , based on Friedrich Schiller's play of the same name, is dedicated to the well-known legend of a Swiss freedom fighter. The unusual overture in the style of a symphonic poem is one of the most popular pieces of classical music. It begins almost like chamber music with a gentle dawn, but the timpani are already cautiously announcing a storm. The storm breaks with menacing force and points ahead to the storm in which William Tell can escape captivity. The pastoral calm after the storm is interspersed with a Swiss shepherd's song, the triangle evokes the sound of cowbells. Trumpet fanfares introduce the following gallop dance, which anticipates the victory of the Swiss soldiers over the Habsburgs.