Wagner, Barber, Saint-Saëns

Lose yourself in the music of German myth and legend, with Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser, the opening scene to an opera of lust, love, and redemption based on Tannhäuser (the minstrel of love). Wagner’s overture, composed in 1845, was inspired by a medieval singing contest held at Wartburg Castle four hundred years prior. The work moves through constant, majestic tension, riding waves that build, then retreat, culminating in a blazing brass triumph that carries a little bit of danger.

Barber’s Adagio for Strings is perhaps one of the most famous, most evocative works of the 20th century. Originally, the Adagio was the slow movement of Barber’s String Quartet, written during his travels to Rome in 1936 while America was recovering from The Great Depression and Europe was sliding into war. Barber adapted the Adagio for full string orchestra and the work was first premiered in 1938. Adagio for Strings has been described as “a deeply mournful American anthem.”

Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.3 arrives with triumphant flair following Barber’s desolation. Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, a French composer and organist of the Romantic era, Symphony No. 3 is known as The Organ Symphony for its use of the organ – radiant, thrilling, and expansive down to the very last bar. “I gave everything to it I was able to give,” Saint-Saëns says of the work. “What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.” Featuring full orchestra, as well as the 4,307 pipes of the Rieger pipe organ, it’s a dramatic, grand work made to be indulged in.

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