Go to "Plan Your Visit" for patron safety guidelines.
Ideas of oppression, (in)tolerance and resilience are woven throughout this program of thought-provoking juxtapositions. Wagner's early Rienzi Overture is influenced by his admiration of Meyerbeer’s operas and Mendelssohn's monumental "Reformation" Symphony is a heartfelt work inspired by the composer's Protestant faith. Visionary pianist-composer Gabriela Montero showcases her astonishing powers in Babel, a portrait of her experience as a human rights activist.
A Message About the Program from Music Director David DanzmayrIn addition to being a pioneer of music drama, Richard Wagner is (in)famous as the writer of an anti-Semitic essay “Jewishness in Music” (“Das Judenthum in Musik”). The main targets of his intolerant vitriol were two composers with Jewish heritage: Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn. It is less well known that before publishing this essay in 1850, Wagner admired Meyerbeer’s operas greatly. Wagner’s early opera “Rienzi” (1841) was written in the style of Meyerbeer’s Parisian grand operas and became Wagner’s first public success with Meyerbeer’s support and advocacy. Wagner’s relationship with Mendelssohn is even more surprising because the two composers knew each other and conducted each other’s music. It is deplorable that Wagner felt emboldened by Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 to publish his anti-Semitic thoughts – but the overture to “Rienzi” gives us a glimpse into young Wagner’s relationships with Jewish composers before he published such abhorrent words.
When you hear Wagner’s “Rienzi” overture juxtaposed with works by Mendelssohn (who came from a Jewish family but was actually baptized as Protestant!), Gabriela Montero and Tausky, I hope the music will bring up questions about our intolerance to our fellow humans and help us find answers to how we can be better.
– from Music Director David Danzmayr
Wagner: Overture to Rienzi
Gabriela Montero: Babel
Tauský: Coventry
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5, “Reformation”
David Danzmayr, Conductor
Gabriela Montero, Piano
Oregon Symphony
Read Program Listing
Read Program Notes
Already a 2022/23 Season subscriber? Log in now to add this concert to your season.
Tickets start at $25
Experience Emanuel Ax's unsurpassed virtuosity in Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, presented alongside the composer's Second Symphony — two early works that find the German master honing his revolutionary musical voice. And Unsuk Chin's Subito con forza pays homage to Beethoven and the relentless energy that is the hallmark of his music.
A "once in a lifetime" talent (Toronto Star), violinist Blake Pouliot brings his signature vigor to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, one of the most dazzling showpieces for the instrument. Zemlinsky's richly orchestrated The Mermaid is a probing psychological work of love lost, written after the composer's own experience of devastating heartbreak.
