Reminiscence

They say of Richard Strauss that he could even have set the telephone book of Garmisch-Partenkirchen to music. In his Symphonia domestica he did in fact create a musical picture of his domestic life, including a marital squabble and a lovely reconciliation: a different “hero’s life”. “To the memory of an angel” was Alban Berg’s dedication for his opus ultimum, the Violin Concerto, which gave his shock about Manon Gropius’s early death the form of a complete requiem; the composer himself did not live long enough to hear it performed. Franz Liszt heard Festklänge only in his inner ear; he composed it for his life companion, Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein: to recognise her provenance, he later added more passages to his symphonic poem in a snappy “alla polacca” rhythm, but they were never published in his lifetime. Robert Trevino conducts the premiere of this newly reissued version at his debut with the Gürzenich. The enchanting Russian violinist Alena Baeva will also be a guest for the first time.