Summer concert of the Per Tutti Orchestra

This summer semester, the Per Tutti Orchestra will take the audience on a journey into the world of fairy tales. The musical means of transportation are works by various composers from around 1900 with very different approaches to the world of fairy tales.

The suite from the opera "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck from 1893 contains many elements known from folk songs, some of which Humperdinck adopted completely, some of which he changed slightly and some of which he only made famous through the opera. Humperdinck's name is still associated with this well-known opera, which he developed together with his sister.

The program continues with Claude Debussy's breakthrough work "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", which translates as "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun". The piece from 1894 is inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé's poem of the same name, which accompanies a faun who awakens from an erotic dream in the shimmering midday heat and finally falls asleep again.

The Sleeping Beauty Suite is also based on an opera by Humperdinck, which premiered in 1902. Here you can clearly hear the influence of Wagner on Humperdinck. The listener is carried through the Sleeping Beauty story delicately and very melodiously, almost with the scent of roses in their nostrils, which entwine the mystical castle tower.

Finally, Dvořák's symphonic poem "The Water Sprite" from 1896 shows a darker side of the fairytale world: it is about the abduction of a girl by the mythical creature, cruelty and infanticide. The poem comes from Kytice, a Czech collection of legends from 1853 with high cultural relevance by Karel Jaromír Erben.