5th Symphony Concert - A Mighty Fortress

Swiss conductor Mario Venzago, former long-time principal conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, plunges into the waves of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's " Ocean Calm and Happy Voyage" at the beginning of the concert. The composer was inspired to write his vivid musical depiction of the sea by Goethe's maritime verses in his pair of poems of the same name. Shortly before, Mendelssohn Bartholdy had also seen the sea with his own eyes: in 1829, he undertook a journey through Scotland and Wales, where he also had his first ideas for the Reformation Symphony. The symphony celebrating the church revolution takes up Luther's chorale "A Mighty Fortress" in the finale, while the first movement is, according to its creator, "a thick animal with bristles." Accordingly, the work, which today is an integral part of the classical-romantic orchestral repertoire, had a difficult start: the premiere in Berlin was canceled, it was heavily criticized in Paris, and the perfectionist composer was plagued by self-doubt, so that the musical creed was not printed 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 especially for the then-novel invention of the Viennese court trumpeter Anton Weidinger – the valve trumpet – the work became one of the most important standard works of its genre. Former ECHO Rising Star Simon Höfele was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in 2020 for his albumStandards featuring trumpet concertos by Haydn and others.