Guest in Bayreuth

Bayreuth, Markgräfliches Opernhaus
19:30 Uhr

Delightful musical gems: under the baton of Pablo Heras-Casado and with Gautier Capuçon as soloist, we perform a joyful and perfectly balanced programme in Bayreuth. Tchaikovsky’s charming “Rococo Variations” are a tribute to his role model Mozart: at the end of the 19th century, he looked back as if through rose-tinted glasses at what he regarded as the happier era of powdered wigs and grand courtly celebrations, producing a gallant piece of music that Liszt raved about: “Yes, at last, music again!” Appropriately, there are two Mozart works that our predecessor orchestra premiered in Prague at the time. The overture to his opera “Don Giovanni”, composed in 1787, contains a few ponderous undertones; after all, the ultimate seducer ultimately ends up in hell. Mozart is said to have jotted down parts of it while playing skittles with friends: “When it was his turn to play, he stood up”, and then “he immediately continued working”. When, in 1791, the year of his death, he received a last-minute commission to compose the opera “La clemenza di Tito” for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, he still worked feverishly on it during his trip to Prague: a study in power, relationships and forgiveness that features some of his most beautiful ideas. Ten years later, Beethoven was writing his Second Symphony while his deafness was beginning. Nevertheless, it is overflowing with optimism, at times reminiscent of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” – and exudes such a joy of playing that a contemporary suggested that “one could draw up a horoscope for the work”: “It will remain and be listened to with ever-renewed pleasure when a thousand currently celebrated fads have long since been laid to rest.”

Pablo Heras-Casado Conductor
Gautier Capuçon Violoncello

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ouvertüre zu »Don Giovanni« KV 527
Piotr I. Tschaikowski Variationen über ein Rokoko-Thema für Violoncello und Orchester op. 33
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ouvertüre zur Oper »La clemenza di Tito« KV 621
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphonie Nr. 2 D-Dur op. 36