Humperdinck · Tchaikovsky

Winter is the season of fairy tales and dreams. While the short days pass by outside, we warm ourselves with stories and memories – and invite you to join us on a musical journey through wide landscapes and enchanted tales.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his First Symphony at the age of 26, accompanied by self-doubt that he turned into lyrical themes and sweeping lines. The first movement, “Dreams of a Winter Journey”, leads along snow-covered hills and fields; the second – “Land of Desolation, Land of Mists” – opens an intimate view into the composer’s emotional depths, before the finale marks the triumph of joy over melancholy.

After the interval we follow the two siblings from the Grimms’ fairy tale into the forest: Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel”, premiered in Weimar in 1893 under Richard Strauss and still one of the most successful German-language operas. For the Accento Orchester München, Philip Rust has rearranged selected highlights into a concert work of around 40 minutes – from the overture and the Evening Prayer to the Gingerbread Waltz.