SLOVENIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Programme:
C. M. von Weber, Der Freischütz (The Marksman), overture
P. I. Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
W. A. Mozart, Symphony No. 41 in C Major, KV 551, “Jupiter”


The opera Der Freischütz, composed in 1819/20, is German both in terms of content and musical expression. As was common practice at the time, Weber did not write the overture until he had completed all three acts of the opera. In this 'study of contrasts' (light-dark, natural-supernatural, slow-fast, major-minor, etc.) the composer was extraordinarily successful in combining all of the most important themes of the opera.

Today any commentary on the destructive and venomous critique written by Eduard Hanslick after the premiere performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, given in Vienna in December 1881, is superfluous. Tchaikovsky was never able to forgive Hanslick, while the wonderful concerto nonetheless went on to become one of the most dazzling and popular works of the entire violin concerto repertoire.

Mozart composed his first symphony as a wonder child in London and his last symphony, Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”, as an exhausted and ailing 32-year-old in Vienna. The symphony’s nickname was given to it shortly after the composer’s death by London violinist and impresario (and Haydn’s patron) J.P. Salomon, and is an excellent description of the spirit that radiates from the entire work – the realisation of the highest ideal of the classical symphony.