Titans of the Romantic era are performed by Kuopio and Joensuu Symphony Orchestras on September 5th

Published 30.08.2024

Works of Wagner, Liszt and Mahler at the opening of autumn season concert series

The Kuopio Symphony Orchestra will start its autumn season at the Kuopio Music Center together with the Joensuu City Orchestra on Thursday, September 5th at 6 p.m. at the Rise of the Titans concert. The masters of the romantic era – Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and Gustav Mahler – are presented by the great ensemble led by the KSO chief conductor Eugene Tzigane. Wagner’s Mastersingers overture is followed by Liszt’s Les Préludes taking us via love and storm to victory. The concert ends with Gustav Mahler’s ambitious 1st symphony, also called the Titan.

The Kuopio Symphony Orchestra’s Rise of the Titans season concert on the 5th of September will also start a journey into the emotional romantic era that will run through the entire concert season. It introduces two key figures who greatly changed the course of music history: Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Wagner was inspired by Liszt’s pianistic freedom and wanted to apply it to his compositions for orchestra. The grandiose overture from Wagner’s opera The Mastersingers of Nuremberg that opens the concert is one of the most popular in opera literature and ends with great splendor.

Liszt’s symphonic poem Les Préludes is, according to the introduction written by the composer himself, a musical description of Alphonse de Lamartine’s poem, which runs e.g. through love and storm to victory. For the first performance of the piece, conductor Hans von Bülow wrote his own version as the content of the Preludes. He saw the symphonic poem as a description of human life from childhood to full middle age.

After the intermission, Gustav Mahler’s 1st symphony, inspired by Jean Paul’s popular novel Titan, will be heard. In his first symphony Mahler presents his trademarks, such as the clarinet playing the cuckoo, off-stage trumpets, and placing his own song in the symphony.

Before the concert, at 5:30 pm in the Kuopio Music Centre Hall of Light, a Pre-Talk event open to everyone is organized.

Tickets: 33 € / 27 € senior citizens and groups min. 20 persons / 11 € children under the age of 16 and students / 4 € concert day discount ticket for students and young people under the age of 20.

KUOPIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Producer & Publicity Manager Elina Prepula, tel. 044 718 2364, elina.prepula(at)kuopio.fi
www.kuopionkaupunginorkesteri.fi | Facebook: Kuopionkaupunginorkesteri | Instagram: kuopionkaupunginorkesteri