Classical Swiss seductions

The Swiss Orchestra here whisks you away into a world full of passion, intrigue and twists of fate. From the dramatic overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni to the virtuoso Flute Concerto by Jean Baptiste Édouard Dupuy – whose life itself was a dramatic adventure – and thence to Ludwig van Beethoven’s fateful Fifth Symphony, you will experience all the highs and lows of human emotion in music. And as a special highlight, this concert features the brilliant Emmanuel Pahud as soloist.

But let’s take things one at a time. The starting point for “Classical Swiss seductions” is Dupuy, a composer from French-speaking Switzerland whose lifestyle earned him the epithet “the Don Giovanni of the North”. He was born in Corcelles-Cormondrèche near Neuchâtel in 1770, studied first in Paris and later in Berlin, and in the latter city played in the orchestra run by Prince Henry of Prussia. He was dismissed from that post, after which he travelled across northern Europe, stopping off initially in Stockholm. He composed, conducted, played the violin and even began a career as a singer. But after falling out of favour with Sweden’s King Gustav IV Adolf because of a pro-Napoleonic song, he was forced to leave the country. He went to Copenhagen, where he enjoyed some success and sang the title role in the Danish premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Not unlike his character in that opera, Dupuy’s numerous explosive love affairs got him repeatedly into trouble. A liaison with Charlotte Friederike, the wife of Prince Christian Friedrich of Denmark (later King Christian VIII) saw him expelled from Copenhagen too. He was eventually allowed to return to Stockholm, however, where he was appointed Kapellmeister in 1812 and subsequently performed several operas by Mozart.

Dupuy was also successful as a composer. His Flute Concerto is in d minor (like Mozart’s Don Giovanni overture), and even though it is a purely instrumental work, its own inherent drama is obvious. And just like in Don Giovanni and the case of Dupuy, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is also about an episode of seduction, though here it ends in a fatal duel between two former friends. All these stories have one thing in common: ultimately, fate decides everything. So it’s fitting that our programme concludes with the most fateful of all symphonies: Beethoven’s Fifth.