2. Sinfoniekonzert «Aufbruch und Abgesang»

In the organizer's words:

ETHEL SMYTH The Wreckers (The Beachcombers): On the Cliffs of Cornwall
EDWARD ELGAR Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in E minor op. 85
JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No. 103 ("With the Timpani Roll") in E flat major Hob. I:103

Introduction 30 minutes before the start.

Joseph Haydn was a star during his three years in London. King George III even offered him an apartment at Windsor Castle to keep him in the country. In his 103rd Symphony, the unusual opening with a timpani roll makes it clear why his English audience adored him so much. The way in which an entire symphony emerges from this is phenomenal and still points the way forward today.
In one of her books, the British composer Ethel Smyth writes: "I want women to take on great and difficult tasks. I don't want them loitering on the shore all the time for fear of going to sea. I am neither afraid nor in need of help." In the prelude to the second act of her opera The Wreckers , On the Cliffs of Cornwall , this is exactly what we hear.
Hardly anyone embodies the artistic and cultural self-image of the British Empire more than Edward Elgar. And so his last completed work for orchestra, his Cello Concerto in E minor from 1919, can be understood as a swan song to a bygone era.