Accentus Music @ Lucerne Festival 2021

On 13 August, the opening concert with works by Mozart and Schubert under the musical direction of Riccardo Chailly will be streamed live on Arte Concert.

At long last: a beginning. The night before its Prague premiere, Mozart composed the overture to his “Don Giovanni”, the “opera of operas.” But this beginning already reveals how it all will end: with the downfall, the hellish journey of the “punished libertine,” the amoral hero for whom the women go crazy. Of this dark prelude, the Romantic E.T.A. Hoffmann, who called himself Amadeus out of admiration for Mozart, wrote: “I saw fiery demons stretching out their glowing claws from nocturnal depths.” What a beginning! And did any symphony before Mozart start off like his G minor Symphony: so restlessly, softly and almost secretly, with no call-to-attention? Was this music written for a future age? Or for the next generation, to which Franz Schubert in Vienna belonged? Yet in his Sixth Symphony, Schubert focuses on the sunny side of life and benevolent musical spirits: C major, Viennese nonchalance, pleasure put to sound, playful ideas, and an affinity with Italian opera buffa. From dark night into the light …

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Overture to "Don Giovanni", K. 527
Symphony in G minor, K. 550

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Symphony No. 6 in C major, D 589

A production of Accentus Music in co-production with Arte G.E.I.E., Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, SRG SSR, with the participation of Mezzo.

Production Company Accentus Music GmbH
Co-Production Company Arte G.E.I.E.
Co-Production Company Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen
Co-Production Company SRG SSR
Assoc. Prod. Company Mezzo
Recording location KKL Luzern
Executive Producer Paul Smaczny
TV Director Ute Feudel
Orchestra / Band Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Conductor Riccardo Chailly