Hornkonzert Nr. 1

This concerto explores the intense and bound less devotion between Richard Wagner and King Ludwig II of Bavaria. United by utopian visions, they created works that continue to captivate people today, ranging from architec tural marvels such as Neuschwanstein Castle to Wagner’s musical dramas: Tristan, The Ring of the Nibelung, and Parsifal, culminating in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Movement I takes inspiration from Wagner’s 1864 remark de scribing his royal patron as ‘… so beautiful and witty, soulful and magnificent’. Movement II evokes the magical world of Neuschwanstein, weaving in motifs from Parsifal to conjure a sense of enchantment and romantic idealism. The emotional finale is reflecting on thoughts of death and the mysterious fate of the ‘fairy tale king’, who drowned in Lake Starnberg in 1886. Enjott Schneider