Weekend with Richard Wagner and Brno Philharmonic Orchestra in Munich

The Brno Philharmonic Orchestra will perform three concerts at the beginning of May in two largest concert halls in Munich, the city of music. Together with the Münchner Opern- und Sängerfreunde agency, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra intends to play these concerts to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner and the 130th anniversary of his death. The concerts will include mainly lesser known compositions of this genius and reformer of the opera. Under the baton of its chief conductor and artistic director Aleksandar Markovic, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra will perform, in each of the concerts, the most demanding symphonic and opera repertoire.

The main attraction of the weekend will be the concert performance of the Wagner’s early opera Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. In this opera, well-known opera singers Endrik Wottrich (Rienzi), Michelle Breedt (Adriano), Katerina Sokolova-Rauer (Irene) will be performing, accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno. The concert will take place on Saturday 4th of May 2013 at 6 p.m. in Gasteig, the domicile of Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the following two concerts, in addition to Wagner, great symphonic compositions of Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss will be performed. In the first concert (3rd of May 2013 in Herkulessaal), a world renowned mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova will sing Songs to Texts by Mathilde Wesendonck (Wesendonck-Lieder), then Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 will be performed. Bruckner, who became a lifelong Wagner devotee, composed this symphony just after the Wagner’s death to honor the composer’s life and work.

The Sunday symphonic matinee concert (5th May 2013 at 11 a.m.) will present Richard Strauss´ symphonic poem A Hero’s Life as well as orchestral works by Richard Wagner. With this grand celebration of the powerful personality of Richard Wagner, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal conductor Aleksandar Markovic will close this Wagner concert trilogy in a city of music that accepted Wagner, the expatriate, and enabled him to produce vast amount of glorious music.

3. 5. 2013 Herkulessal, Richard Wagner: Huldigungsmarsch, Wesendonck Lieder, Bruckner: Symphonie N°7
4. 5. 2013 Gasteig, Wagner: Rienzi
5. 5. 2013 Gasteig, matiné; Wagner: Götterdämmerung: Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt , Siegfried Idyll; Strauss: Ein Heldenleben