2. Sinfoniekonzert

In the organizer's words:

"Heroine's journey"

Fabrice Bollon
Gulliver's further travels

Ethel Smyth
Overture to The Boatswain's Mate

Edward Elgar
Variations on an Original Theme "Enigma"

The second symphony concert "Held*innenreise" (Hero's Journey) focuses on British-Irish music. It begins with Fabrice Bollon's satirical tuba concerto Gulliver's Further Travels, which humorously retells episodes from Jonathan Swift's socially critical classic Gulliver's Travels. Composers such as Johannes Brahms and Jean-Philippe Rameau also get their musical due. The composer himself is responsible for the musical direction of this offbeat piece, with tuba virtuoso and musical cabaret artist Andreas Martin Hofmeir, for whom he composed the entertaining work, as the soloist.

It is only a stone's throw from Jonathan Swift's Irish homeland to England to Ethel Smyth, the most important Romantic composer in the British Isles.

A retired boatman robs the landlady of his favorite pub of her last nerve by confessing his love for her every time he is intoxicated - despite her clear rejections. When he tries to make himself look like a hero by staging a fake robbery, she immediately sees through his stupid ruse. Having had enough, she turns the tables on him and lets the muleteer have a huge run-in ...

Smyth's comic opera The Boatswain's Mate offers a feminist perspective on the relentless harassment of obtuse men that is rare for the early 20th century. No wonder, then, that the avowed campaigner for women's suffrage made her March of the Women - the anthem of the suffragette movement - the musical centerpiece of the overture, thus lending absolute clarity to her progressive message.

Sir Edward Elgar was only a few months older than Dame Ethel Smyth. In the individual movements of his popular "Enigma" Variations, he set his circle of friends to music under a pseudonym. While these identities have long been known, one secret remains unsolved: according to Elgar, the work is based on a theme that is never heard. Musicologists have been tearing their hair out for more than a century without being any closer to a clear solution.

The movement "Nimrod" is still considered the epitome of "Britishness", and the finale also has a special appeal: Here, the idioms of the composer's important role models - Brahms, Bruckner, Schumann - come together in a very confined space and combine with his unmistakable personal style.