WIR 7

A clear, moonlit night in the forest turns to tragedy. The beauty of the moonlight shimmers in muted violins and flageolets, while a single melody exudes "the flow of an inner warmth, from you in me, from me in you". This is how Schönberg described his late-Romantic composition "Verklärte Nacht", which commemorates the union of two people, and at the same time builds the theme for this evening's concert. Based on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Carl Maria von Weber's Romantic fairytale opera "Oberon" sees Oberon take a vow not to reconcile with his queen, Titiana, until a pair of human lovers is found who have been faithful to each other through all perils and temptations. The overture opens with characteristic horn colouring, while agile strings and flutes take the listener on an adventurous journey from the forest through Orient and Occident. Richard Schumann's First Symphony is filled with an overwhelming feeling of spring. Newly married, Schumann described the work as a "summons to awakening" and "the vernal passion that sways men until they are very old, and which surprises them with each year."

The young Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv makes her debut with the Hessian State Orchestra. She takes up a new position as chief conductor at Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra with the start of the 2017/18 season. Prior to that, she worked as assistant to GMD Kirill Petrenko at the Munich State Opera and from 2008 to 2014, she was conductor and deputy-chief conductor at the Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theatre.