4. Sinfoniekonzert

In the organizer's words:

"i mourn a knight in silence"

Hildegard of Bingen
"O dulcissime amator" from Symphonia virginum

Richard Wagner
Prelude and Bacchanale from Tannhäuser and the Singers' War at Wartburg WWV 70

Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major WAB 104 "Romantic"

The mystic Hildegard von Bingen was a medieval polymath. The abbess is also one of the first composers known by name. Her antiphon "O dulcissime amator", composed around 1160, with which we begin our concert, is an extremely delicate chant full of poetry.

Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg is set in the romantically imagined Middle Ages. He fictionalized numerous historical figures, including the minstrels Tannhäuser, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, whose verse "Heimlich lieb' ich einen Ritter" (I secretly love a knight) is the title of the concerto.

The knight Tannhäuser has left his friends in a quarrel and found his way to the Venusberg. There, the goddess of love celebrates non-stop orgies. For her, love is purely physical. After a year, he tires of it and seeks refuge. His former friends are unaware of his escapades and happily welcome him back. This is how he meets his old flame Elisabeth. In a singing competition, he courts her love. But the anti-religious lyrics of the others make him lose his temper and he belts out his love song to Venus. Exposed and outcast, he makes a penitential pilgrimage to Rome. But the Pope refuses Tannhäuser absolution. Embittered, he trudges back to Venus, but Wolfram reminds him of his love. At that moment, a funeral procession appears: Elisabeth has died for his redemption. He begs for forgiveness over her corpse and dies too. Caught between loveless sex in the Venusberg and the sex-hostile ideal of love in a Christian-fascist society, Tannhäuser must fail - a plea for the synthesis of love and sensuality. The overture introduces key leitmotifs of the opera, from the Pilgrims' Chorus to the Venusberg music and the song to the goddess of love. The subsequent ballet music of the Bacchanal sets the debauchery of her realm to music.

Bruckner's Fourth Symphony already bears Romanticism in its name. The reclusive composer was inspired by idealized medieval images of his time: the music contains the horn call of the tower as well as idyllic birdsong, a lovely minstrel's serenade or a lively hunting party in the forest. This is contrasted by a no less romantic eeriness. Long misunderstood by his contemporaries, the monumental Fourth Symphony is today one of his most popular and accessible pieces.