Bamberg Symphony

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Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech

Works

• Richard Wagner: Lohengrin Prelude I
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony no. 3 in F Major, op. 90
• Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto (with Hélène Grimaud)
• Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture

With a musical lineage stretching back to the 18th and 19th centuries — to Mahler and Mozart — Germany’s Bamberg Symphony is a favorite around the world, performing over 7,000 concerts in more than 60 countries and over 500 cities. Its Moss debut features works by Brahms, Schumann, and Richard Wagner, one of the most revolutionary, emotional — and, polarizing — figures in the history of music.

The program is inspired by New Yorker music critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Alex Ross’ recent book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, which explores Wagner’s complicated, many-sided legacy and his colossal influence on music, art, and culture. Maestro Jakub Hrůša — renowned for his partnership with Bamberg Symphony as well as for his guest-conducting with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony — leads a beautiful program that weaves Wagner’s Lohengrin Prelude I and Tannhäuser  Overture. 

In addition to Wagner, the program features work from his German contemporaries, Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann. Virtuoso pianist Hélène Grimaud, praised by the Washington Post for the “rapturous” and “astonishing show of her proficiency and poetic sensibilities,” joins the orchestra for Schumann’s dazzling Piano Concerto.