The distinguished Italian conductor Giovanni Antonini, who for years served as artistic director of the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans, is a frequent guest in the capital of Lower Silesia. During his concert with Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, he will present works written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The programme includes pieces by Joseph Martin Kraus, Carl Maria von Weber, and Franz Schubert.
The evening will open with Joseph Martin Kraus’s Olympus Overture. This now forgotten composer is sometimes referred to as the “Swedish Mozart” – due to the scale of his talent and the similarity of his dates of birth and death. He was born in the same year as the composer of Eine kleine Nachtmusik and died just a year after him. He was highly regarded by Joseph Haydn, who considered Kraus one of the greatest composers of his era. Imbued with expressiveness and dramatic tension, the Overture comes from the incidental music for the tragedy Olympie by the Swedish poet Johan Henric Kellgren, an adaptation of Voltaire’s play. The piece is a prime example of the Sturm und Drang aesthetic of one of the most compelling composers of late Classicism. Next, we will hear Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor. It was composed in 1811 for the distinguished clarinetist Heinrich Baermann. Its distinctive features are dark tones and dramatic intensity, heralding the arrival of Romanticism. The lyrical middle section is reminiscent of an operatic aria, with the clarinet engaging in a subtle dialogue with three French horns. The finale takes the form of an energetic rondo, giving the soloist an opportunity to showcase both virtuosity and sensitivity. The solo part will be performed by French clarinetist Nicolas Baldeyrou, an artist with a versatile repertoire spanning music from the Classical period to the contemporary. It is worth noting that Weber’s clarinet concertos are among the most popular works written for this instrument to date.
The evening will conclude with Symphony No. 4 in C minor D 417 “Tragic”, written by Franz Schubert in the spring of 1816. It was first performed in Leipzig in 1849 – over twenty years after the composer’s death. It is unclear why the nineteen-year-old Schubert chose this subtitle. This may have been due to the dark nature of the first movement, full of violent contrasts and dramatic tension. Following it, lyricism and subtlety predominate, but conflict returns in the finale, which ultimately leads to a lightening of mood and a transition to a triumphant C major.
