Engelbert Humperdinck: Overture to the opera “Königskinder” Richard Wagner: Suite from “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” Samy Moussa: “Elysium” (2023) Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97, “Rhenish”
The concert season gets off to a lively start with the overture to Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera *The King’s Children*; a work that proves, even in its overture, that it is unjustly always mentioned only second to “Hansel and Gretel” and that effortlessly bridges the musical gap to Richard Wagner. Wagner’s “Meistersinger” suite is a masterful highlight of the program, showcasing every facet of the great Wagner opera—from exuberance to solemnity. In his composition “Elysium,” which premiered in 2021 at the “Sagrada Familia” in Barcelona, Samy Moussa gives the ancient concept of paradise an intense musical form. Robert Schumann’s hopeful Symphony No. 3, composed in 1850 amid his first impressions of his new post in Düsseldorf, rounds out the evening with romantic energy.
