Pannon Philharmonic

At the Pannon Philharmonic Saturday night concert, Andrea Rost, a world-famous soprano, who has a decade-long history in opera interpretation, sang for the Pécs audience. The singer, awarded with Kossuth and Liszt Prize, is a regularly performing artist of the Hungarian State Opera; while open to new genres, respectively; in 2013 she published an audio book with the title Opera Tales. At the concert, in Mahler and Wagner's works, she was going to charm not only the fairy tale lovers.

On the programme of the concert, there were three differently inspired works of three eternal composers.
Richard Strauss's symphonic poem about Don Juan, a folk legend, describes the hero, who is looking for a deeper meaning of life, besides the trance, with revolutionary ecstasy. Strauss’s work, presented in 1849, soon brought him international fame; it was inspired by Mozart's Don Giovanni, by a contemporary play, and by Nicolaus Lenau s poem. For the love scenes, the young composer wrote intimate music, arousing a dream world, presumably because at the time of composing Don Juan, himself was already in love with his future wife.

"I have not created anything better than these songs," - said Richard Wagner about the Wesendonck songs he had written to his former patron's wife’s poems. Wagner fell in love with the young Mathilde Wesendonck; the lyrical works that the songs were based on reflect the melancholic relationship between him and her.

In his 4th Symphony, Mahler wanted to paint a cloudless blue sky, with all its nuances. The starting point of the work is a song; it shines out as a coloured spot from the row of Mahler's monumental and serious compositions with its serene atmosphere. Childlike charm, magic, intimacy, and Mahlerian humour are the features of the symphony.

The concert was conducted by Christian Schumann. The conductor, who is, despite his young age, world-renowned, is a charismatic interpreter of classical symphonic and opera repertoire, and contemporary music works.