Summer Night Concert in Park von Schloss Schönbrunn
Fairytales and myths have inspired composers from time immemorial, and audiences, too, have invariably been enthralled by the unending struggle between good and evil. Central to the Vienna Philharmonic’s 2017 Summer Night Concert are German, French, Russian and Czech fairy- tales as well as a contemporary fantasy figure that is Anglo-Saxon in origin. Performed for the first time in front of Schönbrunn Palace, the concert is conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, who is returning for his second such concert. His first was in 2014.

Dvořák’s three-part set of overtures, Nature, Life and Love, dates from 1891 and received its first performance the following year at the final concert that the composer gave in Prague before leaving for New York. With its virtuoso furiant opening, the central panel, Carnival, leads us straight to the heart of the carnival celebrations, with a frenzy of pleasure from all parts of human society. An intermezzo for solo violin and English horn describes a moment of love and looks backward thematically to the earlier overture, In Nature’s Realm. By February 1895 Carnival had been heard for the first time as part of a “lighter and more varied programme” organized by the Vienna Philharmonic at one of its Nicolai Concerts. All proceeds from these concerts were donated to the orchestra’s pension fund. At the same time, the local press assured its readers that a “broad public” had enjoyed the carnival fare.