Concerts of the University Orchestra: Melodic Stumbling Blocks and Symphonic Car Parts

Would you like a bit of blue sky, trickling springs, sunshine and cool, green shade against the February gray of northern Hesse? Johannes Brahms' Second Symphony offers all of this, as contemporaries already attested to the work, which was first performed in 1877. During his summer vacation at Lake Wörthersee, Brahms put the symphony largely on paper. "There the melodies fly that one must be careful not to tread on any," he himself joked about the inspiration provided by the Austrian lake idyll. To this day, the symphony, which evokes many associations with nature, is considered Brahms' "Pastorale."

Under the direction of its longtime conductor Malte Steinsiek, the orchestra has also rehearsed a less familiar symphonic work, the "Lieutenant Kije" Suite. This is the five-part suite to a film score composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1933. The story, based on a satirical novella, is about the supposed Lieutenant Kije: a kind of bureaucratic miscarriage of the Russian tsarist empire of the time, with its sprawling administrative apparatus and spirit of blind obedience. The humorous music retraces the life and career of the turncoat until his burial in an empty coffin.

That Prokoviev's piece has the potential to become a hit was recognized, among others, by the pop musician Sting: he adapted a melody from the Romance of the Kije Suite in his world-famous song "Russians".

Dates:

Saturday, February 11, 7 p.m., St. Martin's Church: university members free with prior registration at https://veranstaltungen.uni-kassel.de/event/semester-konzert-des-universitatsorchesters; note (Feb. 6): there are still remaining tickets at the box office for 15/6 euros
Sunday, February 12, 6 p.m., Friedenskirche: admission: 15 euros, 6 euros reduced. Ticket reservation by e-mail: konzertkarten[at]uni-kassel[dot]de