Ein Heldenleben / Medtner | Ealing Symphony Orchestra

Ealing Symphony continues its season with Elgar's classic 'Cockaigne (In London Town)' overture. First performed in 1901, it was a great success and remains popular to this day.

We explore more exciting piano music with Medtner's first piano concerto. An unsung and not-often-played Russian composer, his music has been described as Rachmaninov-esque. Born in Russia but with German ancestry, the horrible events of the First World War are, perhaps unavoidably, reflected in the work. Russian and German cultures meant equally much to Medtner and the war between the two countries developed into a personal tragedy for him.

Finally, we take on Ein Heldenleben, 'a hero's life'. Following the great success of the Alpine Symphony last year we had to follow on with another epic Straussian work! Generally agreed to be autobiographical in nature (the composer admitted to a friend he saw himself as "no less interesting than Napoleon"), the work introduces the titular hero, before taking us through a fantasical 'life'. We are introduced then to the hero's adversaries, then to his "companion" - Strauss confirmed that the hero's companion is, indeed, a portrait of his own wife. We then see the hero in battle, at peace after the battle, and then finally his heroic 'retirement from this world'.