Zuger Sinfonietta

To mark the advent of warmer weather, the Zuger Sinfonietta is presenting a concert programme that is all about summer. The “Pastorale d’été” will see the orchestra take the audience through the impressionist tones of a summer morning. This idyllic work was composed by Arthur Honegger in the Bernese Alps near to Wengen. Richard Strauss’ oboe concerto was also penned in Switzerland, in Baden to be precise, where the composer established himself after the end of the Second World War. Strauss himself self-deprecatingly described it as “something from the workshop”, yet it is redolent of the fragile optimism of the post-War period. At first hearing, it sounds like a carefree piece, yet Céline Moinet – one of the most technically gifted oboists of our time – manages to plumb its inner depths. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Symphony No.4 meanwhile delivers an atmospheric sound postcard of the Italy that he discovered on his travels as a young man, full of good cheer, lust for life and Italianità!

Arthur Honegger «Pastorale d’été» H. 31
Richard Strauss Concerto for oboe and small orchestra D major AV 144 (TrV 292)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Symphony Nr. 4 A major op. 90 «Italienische»

Talk before the performance with Lion Gallusser at 4.15 p.m. (in German)