The concert of the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic conducted by the Azerbaijani conductor Fuad Ibrahimov looks intriguing. Under the baton of Artistic Director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Munich and the Baku Chamber Orchestra, works by four composers written in the first half of the 20th century will be performed, with soprano Iwona Sobotka.

The evening will begin with the Walk to the Paradise Garden by the English composer Frederick Delius. This piece comes from the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet and is its most popular and the most frequently performed fragment. It appears between the scenes five and six, when a couple of lovers, Sali and Vreli, go to an inn called Paradise Garden. We will also listen to the works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, nowadays remembered for his music written for Hollywood productions. However, this winner of two Oscars had many symphonic and stage compositions to his credit. The latter includes the opera Das Wunder der Heliane from 1927. Its most famous fragment is the aria Ich ging zu ihm, sung by the eponymous Heliane, and it is this aria that features in tonight’s programme. The first part of the concert will end with Anton Webern’s atmospheric Im Sommerwind. This charmingly Romantic work has little in common with very radical achievements of the composer from his mature period.

The Capriccio is the last of Richard Strauss’s operas. It was first performed in 1942 in Munich. Its theme is the relationship between words and music. The programme includes the last scene of this piece, performed by The Countess – the female protagonist. In the finale of the concert, the artists will meet the challenge of the Tod und Verklärung by Strauss, completed in 1889. The composer’s intention was to present the experiences of a man lying on his deathbed. He ponders his achievements, recalls his youth, finally frees himself from the limitations of his body, and his soul finds solace. Early critics made fun of the piece, arguing that it had too many illustrative elements, such as the rhythmic motif of the strings imitating a heartbeat or the descending arpeggios that were associated with convulsions before death. Yet this work defends itself from the formal point of view. It contains three musical thoughts representing life, death and liberation, and culminates in a powerful apotheosis based on the last of the themes. Wonderful instrumentation combined with clear dramaturgy have contributed to the work’s success with performers and audiences alike.