Swiss Romance

The American baritone Thomas Hampson and the Swiss Orchestra will perform Wunderhorn Songs by Gustav Mahler and Three Watercolours by George Templeton Strong, a US composer based in Geneva. The programme also features works by Schubert, Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Joachim Raff (a native son of Canton Schwyz). Altogether, this concert weaves a tapestry of stories all about the big topics of love, longing, Nature, freedom – and transience.

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Overture to The friends from Salamanca D. 326

GEORGE TEMPLETON STRONG

Three watercolours for voice and orchestra

Chorale on a theme of Hans Leo Hassler (“Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden”)

GUSTAV MAHLER

Gustav Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The boy’s magic horn”) for voice and orchestra

“Lied des Verfolgten im Turm”

“Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen”

“Das himmlische Leben”

“Urlicht”

JOACHIM RAFF

Abends (“Evening”), Rhapsody for orchestra op. 163b

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY

Symphony No. 4 in A major op. 90, Italian

THOMAS HAMPSON, baritone

SWISS ORCHESTRA

LENA-LISA WÜSTENDÖRFER, conductor

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

He’s regarded as an intellectual among singers, was named one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” by People magazine in 1993, is one of the great Mahler experts of our times, and was a sensational Don Giovanni in Mozart’s eponymous opera at the Salzburg Festival and everywhere else: the American baritone Thomas Hampson. “A concert”, he says, “is a special experience for me, with a unique atmosphere. It has to convey the message contained in the poetry and in the music. People need stories that invite them to reflect on their humanity. I can think of no better way of doing this than by singing songs”. Together with the Swiss Orchestra, Hampson will be bringing Gustav Mahler’s orchestral songs to the Andermatt Concert Hall. The whole concert will unfold stories about love, longings, Nature, freedom and transience – thus about the biggest topics there are, and with truly beautiful music.

Joachim Raff’s Abends opens up a poetic, twilight soundscape that encapsulates a moment of dreamy reflection in a quiet, lyrical transition from day to night. In contrast, Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs offer an unsparing picture of the world in all its contradictions, its tragedy and its (often grotesque) humour. These songs tell of yearnings for freedom, of love and death, of consolation and of visions of the hereafter. Besides these orchestral songs by Mahler, Hampson will also be singing George Templeton Strong’s Three watercolours. These songs, like miniature paintings, depict delicate atmospheric scenes that are fleeting and transparent. It’s no matter of happenstance that their title refers to the visual arts, for Strong – who was himself a painter – eschews grand gestures in favour of sound colours, nuance and allusion. Felix Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony tells of its composer’s travel impressions and of the Mediterranean joie de vivre he found, offering altogether an idealised vision in sound of the South that is characterised by rhythmic vitality, a dance-like ease and radiant colours. Then there’s the overture to Schubert’s Die Freunde von Salamanka, a singspiel all about friendship – a topic that can’t be absent from our kaleidoscopic tour of the emotions, and that offers another facet to the great array of stories that make this concert programme unique.