MOZART, STRAUSS: LONGING FOR ETERNITY

In memoriam Miroslav Homen

One of Strauss’s last works was the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, the most beautiful concerto of the 20th century for that instrument. The eighty-year-old composer dedicated it to American soldier John de Lanci, the brilliant first oboist of the Pittsburgh Orchestra in civilian life, with whom he had long conversations about music and culture.

His second dedication concerns theatres destroyed in war, which he experienced as the greatest catastrophe of his life, without consolation, without hope. In memoriam! noted Strauss in his Metamorphosen with a section clearly reminiscent of the Funeral March from Beethoven’s Third Symphony, “Eroica.”

In Mozart’s first and last symphonies we find the same musical motif. Did Mozart foresee his Jupiter symphony as the final one…? Is he staring at his childhood at the premature end of his life? With this look back, he rounded out and created his life cycle through symphonies – a symbol of eternity.

Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791): Symphony No. 1 i E flat major, K. 16
I. Molto allegro
II. Andante
III. Presto

Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949): Concert for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D major (TrV 292, AV 144)
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante
III. Vivace – Allegro

* * *
Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings (TrV 290, AV 142)
Adagio ma non troppo – Più allegro – Adagio, tempo primo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, Jupiter, K. 551
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante cantabile
III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio
IV. Molto allegro

The concert is performed with an intermission and lasts approximately 2 hours

General sponsor of the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra