Hailing from Costa Rica, the American conductor Giancarlo Guerrero – former artistic director of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic – often and gladly returns to the capital of Lower Silesia to present his interpretations to the audience. He has often emphasised that he feels at home in Wrocław, so it is no wonder that this time he has chosen a piece for his programme that tells a story of domestic life. There will also be a colourful and very popular symphony by Joseph Haydn.

Symphony in G major Hob. I/100 by Joseph Haydn, commonly called the “Military”, is a part of the London Symphonies written in the 1790s on commission from Johann Peter Salomon, an impresario working in the capital of England. An innovative solution is the use of percussion instruments: a triangle, cymbals and a big drum, which appear in the second and fourth movements of the symphony – in this way Haydn referred to military music. Accents of this type also appear in the trumpet part, which at one point is styled as a military fanfare. Another quality making the Military Symphony such a treat is Haydn’s incredible melodic invention. In this programme, his piece will be an introduction to an extensive, late Romantic programmatic work by Richard Strauss.

Strauss’s Symphonia domestica was completed in 1903 and is – like his Ein Heldenleben – an autobiographical work. The German artist believed that events in his own family life are excellent material for a symphonic work – just as good as Shakespeare’s drama or Nietzsche’s philosophical treatise. In the colourfully orchestrated symphony, there are groups of themes that characterise both Strauss and his loved ones: his wife Paulina and son Franz, the dedicatee. The second movement presents joyful children’s games, the third – a sensual love scene between spouses. It ends with the sound of an alarm clock (seven o’clock in the morning is symbolised by seven bell signals), followed by a finale beginning with the morning bustle conveyed through a virtuoso fugue. This is a work that is extremely demanding for the orchestra, which is why only the best orchestras undertake its performance. Strauss himself requested fifteen rehearsals before the first performance in New York under his baton.