Gabriel Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande op. 80 (Suite)
Ernest Chausson Poème de l’amour et de la mer op. 19
Richard Wagner Wesendonck-Lieder
Maurice Ravel Ma mere l’oye (Suite)
Conductor Matthias Pintscher/ Soprano Yvonne Naef

“Eros” is the theme of the summer 2010 LUCERNE FESTIVAL, and this concert focuses in particular on the topic of unrequited or forbidden love, as in Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, which he composed on poems by Mathilde Wesendonck in 1857/1858 while in exile in Switzerland. Wagner met his muse Mathilde in 1852; she was the wife of Otto Wesendonck, a well-to-do silk merchant who supported Wagner financially and creatively. A deep friendship developed between Mathilde and the composer, soon accompanied by unfulfilled longing for one another. Wagner’s settings of her poems form a musical monument to his love, and his final opera, Tristan und Isolde, was also inspired by Mathilde and by the love-triangle involving both Wesendoncks. The situation remained unresolved until Wagner’s wife Minna intercepted a letter from Wagner to Mathilde, resulting in a breach in the relationship.

Ernest Chausson was a great admirer of Wagner. Chausson composed his Poème de l’amour et de la mer op. 19 between 1882 and 1982 on the poems “La fleur des eaux” and “La mort de l’amour” by his friend Maurice Bouchor. A song cycle for soprano and orchestra, the composition consists of two parts with an orchestral interlude, and it was premiered on 21 February 1893 in Brussels.

In Gabriel Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande op. 80, the subject is the ill-fated love of the two title figures. The suite, about 20 minutes long, has a dramatic structure and was performed for the first time in 1901. Mélisande marries Golaud, a Breton prince. In his absence, however, she falls in love with his brother, Pelléas, who returns the sentiment. As Golaud returns and discovers the secret love between his wife and his brother, he proceeds to kill first Pelléas and then Mélisande.

Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l’oye has a more romantic tone. The suite, premiered in Paris in 1911, is an orchestral version of the four-hand piano piece that Ravel composed in 1908 for the children of some Polish friends. The five movements of the concert suite relate five fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, Laideronette Empress of the Pagodas, Beauty and the Beast and the Fairy Garden.

Matthias Pintscher, who conducts the concert, has a special relationship with the MCO: in 2006 Pintscher was "composer-in-residence" at the LUCERNE FESTIVAL and the MCO played the world premiere performance of his Transir for Flute and Chamber Orchestra. This year’s collaboration with Pintscher continues the MCO’s tradition of playing under the direction of conducting composers in Lucerne.

The concert also features the Swiss opera and concert singer Yvonne Naef, one of the best known dramatic mezzo-sopranos of the present day. She studied in Zürich, Basel and Mannheim and had her international break-through as Giovanna Seymour in a new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at the Monte Carlo opera in 1994 and as Giulietta in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann at the Scala in Milan in 1995.

The MCO at LUCERNE FESTIVAL