Name: A8 Schubert, Rota and Strauss – Bella Italia!
Start: 2025-05-08T19:30:00
Location: Gotha City Hall

Roman Patkoló

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Che bella panorama! The Italian landscape and culture have had a fascinating effect on composers from all over the world for centuries. The majestic mountains, the picturesque coastlines, the lush vineyards and idyllic villages reflect an aura of beauty and romantic flair. This scenic diversity and aesthetics have inspired composers such as Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz and Tchaikovsky to capture their emotions and thoughts in musical masterpieces. Italy became a place of longing for many composers, who combined their music with the romantic landscape and spirited lifestyle of Italy. What is less well known, however, is that Richard Strauss also travelled to Italy in his early phase as a composer and wrote a symphonic poem "From Italy" op. 16, his first work of programme music: "I never really believed in inspiration from natural beauty, but I was taught otherwise in the Roman ruins, where ideas just flew." Under the influence of Gioacchino Rossini, whose operas "Tancredi", "La gazza ladra" and "L'italiana in Algeri" were very popular in Vienna, Schubert composed an "Overture in the Italian Style" for orchestra (D 591) in November 1817, which was premiered in the "Zum Römischen Kaiser" inn. For the first time, Schubert experienced widespread attention and recognition from the feared Viennese music critics with this new, border-crossing style of composition, which was new for Austria. In modern music, however, it is really difficult for composers and, above all, for those who cross genre boundaries - there is often scepticism towards all those who do not only uphold the noble grandeur of music, but have earned their merits through film music, for example. The Italian Nino Rota is an example of this: he became famous through his more than 150 film scores, for example for "La dolce vita", "Death on the Nile", "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "8 ½" by Federico Fellini, "The Leopard" by Luchino Visconti and "The Godfather" by Francis Ford Coppola. Rota himself, however, saw himself as a classical composer who also wrote film music. The "Divertimento concertante" is one of the most demanding works in the double bass concert literature and demands virtuoso technical skills from the soloist. Rota skilfully and humorously stages the double bass and alternates between unexpected surprise tones, a burlesque march and a whirling “bouncer” – a musical adventure for all the senses! 