Festival summer
Klaus Mäkelä
Johanna Wallroth Richard Wagner
Gustav Mahler

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was one of the 19th century's most influential artists, regardless of the art form. The opera Tristan and Isolde builds on a tragic love story from the middle ages, and Wagner finished writing the opera in Lucerne in 1859. The Prelude to the opera created a watershed moment in music history with its unstable and unpredictable harmonies. It became a starting point for the development of music without traditional tonality.

Gustav Mahler wrote his Symphony no. 4 based on one of his songs, Das himmlische Leben - "The heavenly life." The lyrics are a child's description of heaven, found in one of Mahler's most important sources of inspiration: Des knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of German folk poetry. The song, which the soprano performs in the fourth movement, is the foundation for the three previous movements. Symphony no. 4 is Mahler's shortest and brightest symphony and has been an entry gate for many Mahler enthusiasts since its premiere in 1901.