Programme Guide

“He is the most honest of all composers,” Sir Simon Rattle once said about Robert Schumann. During his time as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the music of the Romantic composer increasingly moved to the centre of the orchestra’s work. In the 2008/09 season, for example, all of Schumann’s symphonies were programmed with several different conductors. The “secular oratorio” Paradise and the Peri was also performed under Rattle’s direction. Schumann himself considered the work one of his most successful creations. After great successes during his lifetime, the oratorio was almost completely forgotten later. One of its admirers was the great Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini, who drew Sir Simon’s attention to the beauty of the underrated score.

The work, which combines oratorical, operatic and songlike characteristics in an oriental atmosphere, seems to hover between the worlds, like its protagonist. The peri, whose story Schumann drew from Thomas Moore’s epic tale Lalla Rookh, has both earthly and celestial origins. During the story she tries to gain admittance to paradise, which should actually remain closed to her because of her background. Here, the international ensemble of soloists was led by soprano Sally Matthews as the peri and baritone Christian Gerhaher, who has championed Robert Schumann’s lesser-known works for many years and shares Simon Rattle’s enthusiasm for Das Paradies und die Peri.