The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO), its principal guest conductor Victorien Vanoosten (France), and renowned German cellist Maximilian Hornung will immerse the audience in a world of legends and myths through the music of Richard Strauss. On October 10, the Myths and Legends programme at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall will feature Don Quixote battling windmills, the thoughts of Zarathustra transforming into powerful sounds, and the unfolding passions of Salome. The programme also includes Joseph Jongen’s Fantasia.
Last season, the LNSO and Vanoosten presented their programme Myths and Legends 1 featuring musical interpretations of myths and legends by Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss. This season, the Orchestra invites the audience to delve further into the works of the German composer, conductor, and polymath R. Strauss. His long creative career began while Richard Wagner was still alive and ended only after the World War II. The concert will open with the Tanz der sieben Schleier (Dance of the Seven Veils) from the opera Salome, a work that sparked a major scandal (Strauss composed 15 operas in total). This is an orchestral excerpt: at the request of her stepfather Herod, Salome performs a dance for him, demands the head of the prophet Jokanaan (John the Baptist) in return, and receives it on a silver platter.
The composer was intimately familiar with the capabilities of the most complex ‘instrument’, the symphony orchestra, and composed over 20 large-scale orchestral works, most of which were programmatic. This concert also features two tone poems written in consecutive years: Don Quixote and Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) (1896). The latter represents one of the rare instances in music history where a philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche became the subject of a musical interpretation. Fascinated by the originality and novelty of the idea, the composer infused the work with numerous brilliant discoveries and demonstrated impressive innovations in orchestration.
In the world’s musical repertoire, it is difficult to find a score more colourful and witty than Don Quixote, composed in 1897 and based on Miguel de Cervantes’ novel. The hero is portrayed here in all his grandeur, yet elements of parody and satire are also evident in his musical portrait.
R. Strauss’ iconic Don Quixote will be performed by cello virtuoso Hornung, who is appearing with the LNSO for the second time. The soloist has performed with orchestras such as the London Philharmonics and Czech Philharmonics, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Vienna, Bamberg, Pittsburgh, and Dallas symphony orchestras, among others. He has collaborated with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christian Tetzlaff, and other renowned musicians, and appeared at venues including the Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the philharmonic halls of Berlin and Cologne.
The concert programme will also offer Fantasia for violin and orchestra in E major. Saturated with romanticism and lyricism, the work was written by the Belgian composer and organist Joseph Jongen, a contemporary of Richard Strauss; the violin solo will be performed by Rasa Vosyliūtė. Representing the Walloon School, Jongen is considered a successor to the traditions of César Franck, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel.
Orchestral music concert Myths and Legends 2. LNSO, Maximilian Hornung, Victorien Vanoosten will take place on Saturday, October 10 at 19.00 in the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall. For the full program of the LNPhS 86th season please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.lt LNPhS 86th concert season is sponsored by NORFA.
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