GURRE-LIEDER
In Brief
Oratorical song cycle with Hungarian and English surtitles
Hungarian musicians have been able to perform the largest-scale work by the leader of the Second Viennese School only on one occasion, in 1998, under the instruction of Zoltán Kocsis. Alongside Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and Britten's War Requiem, the opus is one of the works that require the largest ensemble in classical music. Gurre-Lieder, Arnold Schönberg's dramatic cantata, composed 150 years ago in 1874, is the imposing final piece of post-romanticism and also a turning point in his own career as a composer. The truly strange and special score, which uniquely combines the influences of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Mahler, is being studied by more than 300 artists for this occasion: and not only the soloists of the OPERA Orchestra and Chorus, but the international renowned Hungarian conductor Henrik Nánási.