3. Philharmonisches Konzert

Richard Wagner: "Tristan und Isolde" Prelude and Liebestod / Lili Boulanger: "Faust et Hélène" / Kurt Weill: Symphony No. 2

[in the auditorium of the New University]

With "Tristan and Isolde", Richard Wagner sets one of the most famous love stories to music for the opera stage. The prelude tells of the state of mind of the tragic couple: longing and suffering in love, perfectly set to music.

In 1913, Lili Boulanger was the first woman to win the prestigious "Grand prix de Rome" composition prize. The 19-year-old composer won over the jury with a mature cantata to a profound text: Goethe's "Faust", second part. And the piece made Boulanger famous overnight - with sounds inspired by Wagner's "Tristan" and "Parsifal".

After the successes of "The Threepenny Opera" and "Mahagonny", Kurt Weill was asked to write a symphony at the beginning of 1933. He calls his work a symphonic nocturne: melodic fragments reminiscent of Weill songs appear again and again. However, this "entertaining" basic tone of the music is never unclouded: Weill completed the symphony in Paris after his escape from Germany and thus after leaving Lotte Lenya - a work full of longing and inner tension.