Lake Macquarie Music Society is very proud to present the next orchestral concert at Lake Macquarie Performing Arts Centre on Sunday afternoon the 5th May.
Distinguished conductor Wilfred Lehmann will again conduct in a program of great masters, Mozart Wagner and Tchaikovsky. Opening work is the overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, a lively prelude to that ” Day of Madness” which has become the world’s sixth most performed opera. It was Opera Hunter’s first full production at Newcastle City Hall in 1988.
The Siegfried Idyll of Wagner was written for his second wife Cosima, the daughter of Franz Liszt who was 24 years his junior. A more romantic birthday present cannot be imagined. It was played on Christmas morning on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen in Switzerland after the birth of their son Siegfried, and she awoke to the opening melody. That was 1870. Wagner intended this symphonic poem to remain a private work. It has many family references and includes the German lullaby Schlafe, Kindchen, schlafe played by solo oboe. Wagner later sold the score to music publisher Schott in 1878, needing some urgent funds. Wikipedia states that “modern performances are much slower than those of early years”( Jonathan Brown (2012) Great Wagner Conductors.) Wilfred Lehmann is well known for using carefully appropriate tempi so it will be interesting to hear his choice for the Idyll.
Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony of 1888 has four movements and some similarities in ethos with Beethoven’s fifth symphony, triumph over tragedy. Tchaikovsky stated that this piece represents “a complete resignation before fate,—– the inscrutable predestination of fate.” But of course Tchaikovsky takes us to the depths of the Russian soul. It was played famously by The Leningrad Radio Symphony Orchestra during the Second World War siege of Leningrad. Listen for the wonderful horn solo in the second movement, and the recurring theme common throughout all four movements.
Lake Macquarie Music Society has commissioned a new work by Lehmann for this concert. He has named it “A Night Tapestry”, and is scored for strings. This will be a world premiere and a significant event for us. A new work is very exciting and an Australian one by such a distinguished Australian is very welcome.
Tickets for this concert are available from mbuck@exemail.com.au, 49431672, and at the door. Cost is $22, $15 concession, family of four $45, and children under 12 years $10.