19 & 21 April programme PDF - London Symphony Orchestra

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ACT THREE Entr’acte Narration 1 Cavatina: ‘Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle’ Agathe In her room, though oppressed by sadness, Agathe kneels and prays: God will call her to be a bride, in heaven if not on earth. Narration 2 Romance and Aria: ‘Einst träumte meiner sel’gen Base’ Ännchen Ännchen makes fun of Agathe’s fears and mocks the imagined horrors with a tale about a dog mistaken for a ghost. 3 Folksong: ‘Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz’ Chorus (Bridesmaids) The bridesmaids adorn Agathe for her wedding. Narration 4 ‘Hier oben in den Asten’ Chorus (Huntsmen) In an open space, with tents – in one of which Prince Ottokar and his courtiers are feasting – his men regale themselves and praise the life of the huntsman. Narration 5 Finale: ‘Schaut, o schaut’ All are horror-struck. But Agathe is not dead; she wakes from a deep faint. The Hermit has turned aside the bullet. Thwarted, Zamiel directed it to Kaspar. Zamiel, unseen, rises up and claims his soul. Kaspar dies, cursing his master. Max confesses his guilt and is condemned to exile. But the Hermit intercedes and persuades the Prince to show mercy. The Trial Shot is abolished. Max is given a year’s probation, at the end of which he can marry Agathe and become Ranger. He dedicates himself to expiation of his guilt. Agathe and the people give thanks to God. 6 Programme Notes 24 June to 15 July 2012 City of London Festival is delighted to celebrate its 50th birthday with the LSO Box Office 0845 120 7502 | colf.org Festival sponsor Mon 25 & Tue 26 Jun 8pm, St Paul’s Cathedral LSO at St Paul’s with Sir Colin Davis Berlioz Requiem (Grande Messe des morts) Sir Colin Davis conductor | Barry Banks tenor London Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Chorus Tickets £5 £10 £15 £21 £32 £45 £50 25 Jun sponsored by BNY Mellon 26 Jun sponsored by Mizuho International plc Wed 27 Jun 7.30pm, Goldsmiths’ Hall LSO Brass Quintet A programme of golden music including Francisco Coll, J S Bach, Ewald, Jim Parker, Gershwin & Fats Waller LSO Brass Quintet Timothy Jones horn | Philip Cobb trumpet | Niall Keatley trumpet Dudley Bright trombone | Patrick Harrild tuba Tickets £10 £20 (inc glass of wine) Francisco Coll’s world premiere of A Golden Fanfare is commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
Carl Maria von Weber Der Freischütz: About the Music Weber’s evergreen masterpiece has had a chequered career. First performed in Berlin in 1821, it created a sensation rarely equalled in the annals of opera and quickly became the supreme expression of German Romanticism, the symbol par excellence of the contemporary quest for national identity (as well as a popular work outside Germanspeaking lands). In that respect its advent was perfectly timed; it came most carefully upon its hour. Its subsequent history has been less fortunate. By the middle of the 19th century a sacred monument in its native country – part of the Wagnerian blood-and-soil conception of the German spirit – it had begun to lose its appeal elsewhere and to appear dated and even absurd. Its co-option in the 20th century as an instrument of Nazi ideology led in turn to a reaction and, in the years following the World War II, it was reinvented in Marxist terms or interpreted as a parable of existential despair or, alternatively, sent up as a naïve fairytale ripe for ridicule. To quote the American scholar and Freischütz-celebrator Donald Henderson, the work is regularly subjected to productions which ‘pit the illusions of its librettist and composer against the realities demanded by life today’. There is seemingly no end to the indignities visited on it. In a concert performance we can happily forget such fatuities and give ourselves freely to the delights of this perennial score. In any case, what is reality? Great artists re-make it. They create their own reality – and Weber does so in Der Freischütz. His music-drama is so vivid that the vision of the German forest world in the time following the horrors of the Thirty Years War – its customs and enjoyments, its daily habits, its superstitions, its hopes and fears, its terrors, its belief in the supernatural and in the power of evil and the possibility of good – becomes totally real. Der Freischütz is an opera of unforgettable ‘sounds and sweet airs’: Max’s lyrical evocation of the woods and meadows in the days of his happiness; the intense impression of moonlight on Agathe’s balcony and the light wind moving among the pines; the peasants’ mocking laughter, their homely waltz fading into the dusk; the lovely lilt of Agathe’s and Ännchen’s A major duet; Ännchen’s merriment; Kaspar’s vicious piccolos; the baleful colour of clarinets in their lowest register, contrasted with the genial glow of the huntsmen’s horns, representatives of the struggle at the heart of the opera; and then the Wolf’s Glen and the evocative power of Weber’s orchestra, the sinister, hopping birds, the rushing cataract, the fury of the storm. Never before had music pictured nature and the natural world and human beings’ immersion in it with such freshness and mastery. Two centuries later, it rings as bright and true as ever. Programme Note and Synopsis © David Cairns Programme Notes 7
Page 1 and 2: Thursday 19 & Saturday 21 April 201
Page 3 and 4: The value of an investment and the
Page 5: 4 Song: ‘Hier im ird’schen Jamm
Page 9 and 10: Performer’s Perspective from the
Page 11 and 12: Stephan Loges Ottokar / Zamiel (bas
Page 13 and 14: Falk Struckmann Kaspar (bass-barito
Page 15 and 16: Lucy Hall Four Bridesmaids (soprano
Page 17 and 18: London Symphony Chorus President Si
Page 19 and 20: On stage First Violins Carmine Laur

19 & 21 April programme PDF - London Symphony Orchestra

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