Exhilarating sounds delight the audience at the coburg state theater

At the turn of the 20th century. In the nineteenth century, the poetic works of the belgian symbolist maurice maeterlinck triggered a veritable creative frenzy among the spatromantic, im and expressionist composers.

Stage music by faure

Above all his play "pelleas et melisande inspired numerous composers to tackle the material as opera, drama or symphonic poetry. Pelleas" alone was performed six times set to music as an opera. After the most famous setting of the drama by claude debussy had already been heard at the coburg landestheater a few years ago, one could now look forward to stage music by gabriel faure and symphonic poetry by arnold schonberg to the same piece. Six songs based on texts by the same poet by alexander zemlinsky usefully rounded off the performance sequence.

Enthusiastic

As early as 1898, the french late romanticist gabriel faure created his stage music for "pelleas et melisande", from which the four-movement suite for orchestra was composed. Delicate in the strings, the prelude rises and unfolds with rapture. The tranquil melody of the "spinnerin is surrounded by the swirling figures of the violins. In the transverse flute, the much-played earworm of the sicilienne is heard, before melisande’s death becomes serious and sublime in tone. The philharmonic orchestra under the careful direction of roland kluttig gave here a first rehearsal of its sonorous, precise and homogeneous music making.

This was followed by six songs after texts by maurice maeterlinck for medium voice and orchestra by the viennese expressionist alexander zemlinsky. As a soloist, the opera "isolde" was performed in coburg and "salome the best-known soprano ute doring-florey, who – as a master student of dietrich fischer-dieskau – was appointed professor of singing at the berlin university of the arts in the winter semester of 2015/16.

Vivid design

The songs, which bordered on the tonal, were performed by heart with clear enunciation and the expressiveness of her sustained, modulated voice. Seismographically, the orchestra, which once again plays with a certain tone, follows the respective moods under kluttig’s forceful direction.

The high point after the intermission was the extensive symphonic poem "pelleas and melisande" by arnold schonberg, the later champion of the twelve-tone technique, but here still exploring the last possibilities of tonality in a highly chromatic style. This "opera without soloists was heard in a reduced version by erwin stein, which does not mean that the immense demands on the musicians of the orchestra were lessened.

Sustained applause

Here the performance of the musicians was demanded to the last and also the conductor could draw from the full. One experienced a concentrated, dense rendition of the mighty opus, which deserved admiration and was rewarded with strong, sustained applause.

This is how it continues in the concert calendar of the landestheater coburg

Saturday, 30. June klassik-open-air, philharmonisches orchester landestheater coburg, conductor: roland kluttig – 20.30 pm, rosengarten coburg (free admission)

monday, 9. July 7. Symphony concert – bruckner, 8. Symphony in c minor, philharmonic orchestra landestheater coburg, conductor: roland kluttig – 8 pm, st. Moriz. – advance ticket sales: tageblatt office, theater box office