Performers
Programme
Goethe's Faust, the quintessentially German myth: Hector Berlioz transformed it into a romantically charged choral symphony that could also hold its own as an opera. The grand world theater of thirst for knowledge and megalomania, of seductiveness and depravity, takes on a subtle French accent here.
What fascinates Music Director Alain Altinoglu about this solitary work is the way in which the Frenchman Berlioz appropriates this quintessentially German material – namely by filtering the classic through a genuinely French prism. It is precisely the orchestral timbres that give this reinterpretation of the web of relationships between Faust, Margarete, and Mephistopheles its very own charm. Berlioz approached the task of transforming the German national epic into highly melodious, sparkling, and sophisticatedly suggestive music with the utmost respect: „I did not attempt to translate Goethe's masterpiece, nor to imitate it, but simply let it work on me in an effort to grasp its musical content.“ The result, says Alain Altinoglu, is „a profoundly hybrid work, and that is precisely what makes it so rich.“ (hr-Sinfonieorchester)