Schicksalslied und Lobgesang

The Constellation Choir & Orchestra
Hilary Cronin and Sam Cobb soprano
Jonathan Hanley tenor
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor

Programme:
Johannes Brahms: »Schicksalslied« (Song of Destiny), Op. 54, for mixed choir and orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 52, »Lobgesang« (Hymn of Praise)

Sir John Eliot Gardiner was one of the pioneers of historically informed performance at the Musikfest in its early years, with the English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir – for which he was awarded the first ever Musikfest Prize in 1998! He last appeared at the festival in 2002, and now returns with the Constellation Choir & Orchestra, a new collective of leading international singers and instrumentalists. They bring with them two seminal choral works of the Romantic era. In »Schicksalslied« (Song of Destiny), Brahms masterfully captures the contrasting worlds of divine and human existence in a setting of a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin. The »Lobgesang« (Hymn of Praise) was written for the 1840 Leipzig festivities marking the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press. Mendelssohn Bartholdy vividly depicts the consequences of Gutenberg’s accomplishment as a victory of light over darkness – with three instrumental parts and a dominant fourth vocal movement featuring arias, duets and choruses Gardiner, a master of dramatic tension and dynamic variations, will reveal the full splendour of these two masterpieces. Welcome back, Sir John Eliot!

supported by the Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung