Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) lasts 4½ hours in the opera house, but Exeter Symphony Orchestra’s first concert of 2022 opens with its popular Overture/Prelude which introduces all of its beautiful melodies in just 12 minutes. Wagner first contemplated writing a light-hearted musical drama about the sixteenth century mastersingers and their singing contests in 1845, but it was only years later when visiting Venice and seeing Titian’s painting The Assumption of the Virgin that he was inspired to start work. The opera, premièred in Munich in 1868, was an instant triumph and remains an audience favourite.
To perform the Violin Concerto No 3 in B minor, Op 61 by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) the orchestra is delighted to welcome to the platform the renowned, London-born violinist Piotr Kopec. Piotr studied at the Trinity College of Music, gaining an honours degree in violin performance, and is now Dorset-based; he is a member of several string quartets and works with orchestras, choral societies, chamber groups, opera and in musical theatre. He plays a 1673 instrument made by the luthier Andrea Guarneri of Cremona (on loan from Felicity Belfield). Saint-Saëns composed this concerto, his last major work for the violin, in 1880 when it was immediately premièred in Hamburg by the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate to whom it was dedicated. It has since become one of the illustrious French composer’s most performed and admired compositions.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his Symphony No 6 in B minor, Op 74, ‘Pathétique’ in 1893; it is his last completed symphony and recognised as one of his saddest. The composer subtitled the work ‘Passionate’, but this was translated into French in error as ‘Pathétique’, meaning solemn or emotive. In August 1893, the perfectionist Tchaikovsky told his brother about a symphony which “suddenly displeased” him to the extent that he tore it up, but added that he had since completed another with which he was “wholly occupied” and would certainly not tear up. He regarded it as “the best” and “most sincere” of all his works. The piece about which he was so uncharacteristically upbeat was his 6th Symphony and he directed its first performance in St Petersburg, notably just nine days before his death. The work is replete with wonderful tunes, although theories about hidden meanings abound and there is no denying its pervading sadness. It is the only Tchaikovsky symphony which ends in a minor key; the finale is marked adagio lamentoso and it ends morendo (dying away). All that said, Tchaikovsky’s last symphony remains a much-loved masterpiece and staple of concert halls worldwide.