The fifteen-year-old Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy initially resisted the entertainment offered by the Baltic resort of Bad Doberan, where he accompanied his father. To pass the time, he sketched the medieval minster, read the classics and solved musical puzzles. However, he became fascinated by the sound of the local brass band, for which he composed a piece that formed the starting point for his later Ouvertüre für Harmoniemusik. Its colourful texture seems to foreshadow the famous overture to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A little earlier, another brilliant teenager, Ludwig van Beethoven, was working painstakingly on his Piano Concerto No. 2, described as ‘Mozartian’ in sound and form. The piece was actually written before his ‘First’ Concerto, but was published later. The Concerto, which was reworked many times, served as a compositional laboratory for the young artist, also helping him develop his skills as a piano virtuoso. During the concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic, the piano will be played by David Fray, a pianist famous for seeking unorthodox interpretations.
Richard Strauss, when he was more than twice the age at which Mendelssohn and Beethoven composed their early works, eagerly wove autobiographical themes into his compositions. One example is the symphonic poem Symphonia domestica for an expanded orchestral ensemble, describing everyday family life. The composer assigned suitable musical themes to the characters of the husband, wife and children, showing them in various interactions: from parental and marital tenderness, through children’s play, to marital quarrels, clearly not unfamiliar to Strauss.
Bartłomiej Gembicki
