Classical Sound Cloud 23

Muse, victim, perpetrator

Not only women as interpreters and composers will be the focus of the International Brucknerfest Linz 2023, but also the role of women as a source of inspiration in the form of historical, literary or, as in the case of Klassische Klangwolke 23, mythological figures. The Bohemian composer Václav Pichl, for example, dedicated a symphony to each of the nine Greek muses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. The symphony in B flat major is entitled Melpomene and thus, despite its cheerful and buoyant character, refers to the muse of tragedy and funeral song. His much more famous contemporary Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, who composed twelve symphonies based on Ovid's Metamorphoses in the 1780s, including the highly expressive Symphony in F major entitled The Rescue of Andromeda by Perseus, which is a veritable oboe concerto, took a similar approach. In the second part of the programme, the celebrated Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, together with the well-known actress Meike Droste, will present the rarely performed, yet outrageously stirring melodrama Medea by Georg Anton Benda, which tells the story of the mythological female figure of the same name who, broken by fateful experiences, ultimately becomes a murderess.