Swiss Romance

He’s regarded as an intellectual among singers, was named one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” by People magazine in 1993, is one of the great Mahler experts of our times, and was a sensational Don Giovanni in Mozart’s eponymous opera at the Salzburg Festival and everywhere else: the American baritone Thomas Hampson. “A concert”, he says, “is a special experience for me, with a unique atmosphere. It has to convey the message contained in the poetry and in the music. People need stories that invite them to reflect on their humanity. I can think of no better way of doing this than by singing songs”. Together with the Swiss Orchestra, Hampson will be bringing Gustav Mahler’s orchestral songs to the Andermatt Concert Hall. The whole concert will unfold stories about love, longings, Nature, freedom and transience – thus about the biggest topics there are, and with truly beautiful music.

Joachim Raff’s Abends opens up a poetic, twilight soundscape that encapsulates a moment of dreamy reflection in a quiet, lyrical transition from day to night. In contrast, Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs offer an unsparing picture of the world in all its contradictions, its tragedy and its (often grotesque) humour. These songs tell of yearnings for freedom, of love and death, of consolation and of visions of the hereafter. Besides these orchestral songs by Mahler, Hampson will also be singing George Templeton Strong’s Three watercolours. These songs, like miniature paintings, depict delicate atmospheric scenes that are fleeting and transparent. It’s no matter of happenstance that their title refers to the visual arts, for Strong – who was himself a painter – eschews grand gestures in favour of sound colours, nuance and allusion. Felix Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony tells of its composer’s travel impressions and of the Mediterranean joie de vivre he found, offering altogether an idealised vision in sound of the South that is characterised by rhythmic vitality, a dance-like ease and radiant colours. Then there’s the overture to Schubert’s Die Freunde von Salamanka, a singspiel all about friendship – a topic that can’t be absent from our kaleidoscopic tour of the emotions, and that offers another facet to the great array of stories that make this concert programme unique.