Repertoire

Richard Wagner: Prelude from Parsifal
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3, Op. 90

Artists

Ruzan Mantashyan, soprano
David Afkham, conductor
OBC

Programme

The prelude to Richard Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal, will start off a concert where farewells will be in the air. This openly spiritual music, envisioned for a Christian redemption drama conceived, explores the expansion of time and a profoundly symbolic harmony, as well as incorporating the Dresden Amen, which Mendelssohn had already used in his “Reformation” symphony.

Strauss’s Four Last Songs, written in 1948, reflect the composer’s lyrical will and testament. With texts by Hesse and Eichendorff, the solo voice – renowned Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan – conveys a serene acceptance of the end, accompanied by an orchestration of a twilight expressiveness.

More intense emotions will come in the second part, featuring the OBC conducted by David Afkham: the concert will culminate with Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, premiered in 1883. Between the dramatic momentum of the extreme movements and the serene melancholy of the famous allegretto, Brahms constructs a work of expressive density and refined architectural design, projecting the classical tradition with a fully Romantic voice.