ANTI - HELDEN

He lies through his teeth, is a fantasist and narcissist who, at the end of his restless journey through life, describes himself as an onion - with many skins but no core. In Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen created an almost "exemplary" anti-hero, to whom Edvard Grieg created an immortal monument with his stage music. Like Grieg, Mozart's contemporary Josef Martin Kraus also commuted between Germany and Scandinavia. His monumental opera "Aeneas in Carthage", composed for the Swedish court, depicts the impossible love story of Dido and Aeneas, in which Troy's hero ultimately makes an inglorious exit. Completely untouched by such drama is the cheerful and virtuoso C major cello concerto by the great Kraus admirer Joseph Haydn, which was only rediscovered in 1961.