Symphony No. 5 - A Mighty Fortress

At the start of the concert, Swiss conductor Mario Venzago—former and long-time music director of the Bern Symphony Orchestra—plunges into the waves of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s *Calm Sea and Happy Voyage*. The composer drew inspiration for his vivid musical depiction of the sea from the maritime verses of Goethe’s two poems of the same name. Shortly before that, Mendelssohn Bartholdy had also seen the sea with his own eyes: in 1829, he undertook a journey through Scotland and Wales, where he also conceived the initial ideas for his Reformation Symphony. The symphony, composed to celebrate the Protestant Reformation, takes up Luther’s chorale “A Mighty Fortress” in the finale; according to the composer, the first movement is “a thick beast with bristles.” Consequently, the work—which today is an indispensable part of the classical-romantic orchestral repertoire—faced significant challenges: the premiere in Berlin was canceled, it was met with harsh criticism in Paris, and the perfectionist composer was plagued by self-doubt, so that this musical creed was not published until two decades after his death.

Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major joins the festive trumpet sounds at the end of the overture and in the finale of the symphony. Written specifically for the once-novel invention of the Viennese court trumpeter Anton Weidinger—the valve trumpet—the work evolved into one of the most important standard works of its genre. For his album*Standards* featuring trumpet concertos by Haydn and others, former ECHO Rising Star Simon Höfele was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in 2020.