Sinfoniekonzert Con Brio Würzburg
Balance and Interim Balance
The Sinfonieorchester Con Brio plays Mozart and Strauss
The Sinfonieorchester Con Brio Würzburg presents in its winter program two very different, each in its own way grandiose works of classical-romantic music to its audience: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor KV 550 and the tone poem for large orchestra “Ein Heldenleben” op. 40 by Richard Strauss. The extensive violin solo part in “Heldenleben” will be taken by the long-standing and proven concertmaster of Con Brio, Reinhold Emmert, while the concert will be conducted as always by Prof. Gert Feser. The concerts will take place on Friday, February 13, 2026, at 7:30 PM in the Max-Littmann-Saal in Bad Kissingen and on Saturday, February 14, 2026, at 7:30 PM in the Great Hall of the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg. Tickets are available at the usual advance sale points as well as at Eventim (Bad Kissingen) and Reservix (Würzburg).
Richard Strauss stands at a turning point in his life with his tone poem created in 1898; “Heldenleben” is so to speak a kind of interim balance of his previous works. In it, Strauss comprehensively invokes his already existing work – not only in numerous self-quotations but also in the play of genres (the tone poem is equally a symphony, a solo concerto, even an opera, and also chamber music), the forms, the (impressionistic as well as expressionistic) coloring, and last but not least in the palette of feelings that a bourgeois educated heart at the turn of the century could contain. All of this the composer shapes into the vast painting of a “hero” (himself?), who encounters adversaries, has a faithful companion by his side, and in struggle and self-reflection ultimately finds “escapism and fulfillment.”
In contrast, the famous G minor symphony by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is more a balance of a compositional life than an interim milestone. The penultimate symphony of the Viennese master, created in 1788, is, compared to “Heldenleben,” typically slender in orchestration, yet contains no less musical power and grandeur. By the way, hardly any work of the Viennese Classical period has been so differently interpreted as KV 550 – the assessments encompass such opposing emotions as “Greek floating grace” (Robert Schumann), “tragic pessimism” (Bernhard Paumgartner), or “rejecting closure” (Dietmar Holland). Perhaps this variety of reception is the best demonstration of the greatness of the work.
Copyright: PHOTO PRISMA - Martina Kaiser
Admission: 6:45 PM
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