The concert evening opens with the overture “The Marriage of Figaro” KV 492 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

This is followed by the second movement “Air” from the wonderful Suite No. 3 in D major, which Johann Sebastian Bach completed between 1717 and 1723. Trumpets, oboes and timpani are silent, while strings and basso continuo imitate a song-like melody and a fully developed motivic middle voice.

This is followed by both “The Moonlight Sonata” and “For Elise” in an arrangement for piano and orchestra by Georgii Cherkin. When asked who this Elise was, various biographers of the master have long since come up with a rather dry scientific explanation: “Elise” was a reading error. Strangely enough, the original “Für Elise” only emerged long after Beethoven's death, when the musicologist Ludwig Nohl (1831-1885) discovered it in a private house in Munich. Since then, it is considered certain that where Nohl read “Elise” was actually “Therese”.

This is followed by the overture The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, whose operas such as “Il barbiere di Siviglia” (The Barber of Seville) and “La Centerentola” (Cinderella) have become popular pieces of opera repertoire worldwide.

Shortly before the end of the concert, an arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “Rondo alla Turca” KV 311 for piano and orchestra will be performed in the ambience of the Mendelssohn Hall.