Resonance Ensemble | Wayfarers

Resonance Ensemble, conducted by Tony Ryan, will present a concert of well-known music, although, as always with Resonance programmes, the works are rarely heard in Christchurch.

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony (No. 4) is one of this composer’s most popular pieces. All four movements radiate Italian warmth and vitality, drawing on Italy’s lively dance forms and folk songs. Mendelssohn was often inspired by places he encountered on his extensive travels, and Italy gave him all the colour, spectacle and atmosphere that he needed.

Soprano Helen Charlton joins the orchestra for Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). In this cycle of four lyrical songs, Mahler wrote his own words based on German folk poetry and these songs are among the most familiar and appealing of his vocal works, full of rhythmic variety and textural invention. 

The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) was among Mozart’s very last compositions, premiered just two months before his death in 1791 at the age of thirty-five. This magnificent masterpiece is one of the composer’s few German operas (Singspiel), most others being written in the Italian style, which was popular at the time.

Resonance’s programme includes two extracts from The Magic Flute. The concert will open with its famous Overture, and Helen Charlton will once again join the orchestra for Ach, ich fühl's in which Pamina expresses her anxiety for Tamino’s safety.