Tell, Swiss Legend

William Tell is the hero of Switzerland’s founding myth and has inspired artists to magnificent works. But it’s somehow typical of the Swiss – and quite in keeping with our sense of understatement – that the story of our great national hero only became famous across the world thanks to works of art created in our neighbouring countries. In the late 18th century, against the backdrop of the French Revolution, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited Switzerland several times – repeatedly coming as far as the Gotthard and Andermatt – and all the while engaged in an intensive study of the legend of William Tell. He considered adapting the story himself, but instead passed on the idea to his friend and fellow German Friedrich Schiller, whose drama Wilhelm Tell was given its first performance at the Weimar Court Theatre in 1804, directed by Goethe. This play quickly became popular and also found an admirer in the grandmaster and top tunesmith of Italian opera, Gioachino Rossini. In the late 1820s, when he was in Paris and at the height of his fame, Rossini created his own, operatic monument in music to William Tell.

The Swiss Orchestra is now dedicating a programme of its own to this legendary figure from Swiss history: “Tell, Swiss Legend”, which opens with the famous overture from Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. With Hans Huber’s Symphony No. 1 (the Tell Symphony), the Swiss Orchestra, conducted by Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, is also presenting a rarely performed Swiss symphonic work that tells the story of our national hero from a Swiss perspective. The structure and sound of the work suggest an underlying dramatic programme in which Tell’s story is transformed into music: Exciting forte passages redolent of danger are followed by idyllic images of Nature and heroic soundscapes. In the final movement, a hymn to Tell and to Swiss independence seems to resound. And perhaps, here and there, we can even hear the bolt of a crossbow whizzing through the air …

Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto will be performed in between these two Tell pieces. Powerful and majestic, while also full of yearning, it remains one of the most popular works in the classical repertoire today. The soloist will be the brilliant pianist Olga Scheps.