Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 2 D major, op. 36

Interval

Kurt Weill
Four Walt Whitman Songs

Ottorino Respighi
Pini di Roma

Mariss Jansons, Conductor

Thomas Hampson, Baritone

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Programme Booklet

Download Programme Booklet (in German)

In 2013, Mariss Jansons was awarded the Siemens Music Prize, and American baritone Thomas Hampson delivered the eulogy. The two musicians had already worked together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra many times before. Now Maestro Jansons will be reunited with this charismatic singer, who has a special passion for art song in all its many facets. This time Hampson will present Kurt Weill’s Four Walt Whitman Songs, written in the 1940s during the composer’s American exile. Brimming with patriotism, Whitman’s poems are reflections on the American Civil War, the death of Abraham Lincoln and other nameless victims. They offered Weill a welcome vehicle for protesting against the warmongers of Fascism, and he set them to music in a striking synthesis of European art song and Broadway show tune. A sharp contrast will be provided by the martial fustian at the end of The Pines of Rome, the second piece in Ottorino Respighi’s Roman trilogy. It is a naturalistic fresco poised between Impressionist pastels and gleaming orchestral colours. The concert will open with Beethoven’s rarely heard Second Symphony, its radiant D major only seeming to cast a spell of optimism.

Photo Gallery

Here are some photos of the rehearsals and concerts with Mariss Jansons and Thomas Hampson.