Born 250 years ago, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was one of the key figures of early Romanticism. He is best remembered today for his literary work: a music critic and writer, he inspired Schumann’s Kreisleriana (named after his pen name Kreisler) and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. In some of his stories, Hoffmann featured composers as characters — Gluck, for instance, is the protagonist of The Knight Gluck, published in 1809.
Driven by a deep admiration for Mozart (so much so that he adopted “Amadeus” as his third name), Hoffmann was also a multi-instrumentalist, conductor and composer. He wrote several operas and vocal works, along with a few chamber pieces and a symphony emblematic of early Romanticism.
Composed a few years before his famous critiques of Beethoven’s symphonies, his Symphony in E-flat major is finely crafted and shows the influence of both Haydn and Mozart. Once upon a time… E.T.A. Hoffmann, through music and readings
Text: Orchestre de chambre de Paris
PROGRAM
Dans le cadre de la commémoration du 250e anniversaire de la naissance d’Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, Symphonie en mi bémol majeur
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, « Ouverture » de Don Giovanni
Jörg Widmann « Es war einmal », Fünf Stücke in Märchenton pour clarinette, alto et piano, no 1
Juliette G. Dillon, Extraits des Contes fantastiques d’Hoffmann
Robert Schumann, Kreisleriana, op. 16 (extraits)
Robert Schumann, Introduction & Allegro appassionato pour piano et orchestre en sol majeur, op. 92
Christoph Willibald Gluck, « Danse des esprits bienheureux » et « Danse des Furies », extraites d’Orphée et Eurydice, Wq. 30
