The sound of the time capsule: The Capitol Symphony Orchestra at the Alte Oper
11.10.2024
The Capitol in the Alte Oper: when the 250th anniversary of the traditional music publisher Johann André is celebrated as a double anniversary for the sister cities of Offenbach and Frankfurt, special mergers take place. The two Lord Mayors Mike Josef (Frankfurt) and Dr. Felix Schwenke (Offenbach) toasted a quarter of a millennium of extraordinary and successful music history with a good 450 guests in the Mozart Hall of the Alte Oper. "Art and culture are among the most beautiful intersections at which our two cities have been jointly driving the region forward - and have been doing so for centuries," emphasized Dr. Schwenke. "The example of the company and the André family is impressive proof of this."
The Capitol Symphony Orchestra once again provided the musical proof, playing five of the 18,000 musical works published by André in a celebratory concert. "It's good for the region to meet at eye level, and with no one is this as obvious as with our direct neighboring city of Offenbach," said Frankfurt's mayor Mike Josef, adding with a smile: "This is not only true for the two mayors." Further words of welcome were spoken by Marc Leister on behalf of the evening's main sponsor, Frankfurter Volksbank, and Dr. Dorothee Freudenberg on behalf of the Citoyen Foundation as co-organizer. The host of the Alte Oper, Dr. Markus Fein, and the head of Offenbach's cultural management, Dr. Ralph Philipp Ziegler, welcomed the guests.
First editions from the publishing house Johann Anton André
The soloist was the multi-award-winning bassoonist Lola Descours, who performed the bassoon concerto by the "André household god" Wolfgang Amadé Mozart. 225 years ago, publishing director Johann Anton André bought Mozart's musical estate from his widow Constanze for a price that was disproportionately high at the time. But he backed the right horse: 79 Mozart first editions were published by André, including the world-famous "Kleine Nachtmusik". Descours played the solo part with elegance, charm and an effective dose of musical humor. The overture "The Hussites before Naumburg", written in 1818 by Mozart's buyer Johann Anton André, was an effective concert piece that was absolutely at the height of its time. The radiantly splendid Symphony in D major op. 36, composed in 1799 for a princely wedding, was written by Paul Wranitzky, the Bohemian-born Viennese opera director at the turn of the 1800s. The young conductor Friedrich Praetorius from the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Capitol Symphony Orchestra gave pulsatingly lively interpretations of the rarely heard works, including the Mozart concerto, tinged with subtle nuances of color. Finally, the Offenbachers from the neighboring city brought along two hits from the 1921 publishing production dedicated to the Frankfurt Zeil: "Das Warenhausprinzesschen" by Ferdinand Adam Esslinger and "In Frankfurt auf der Zeil" by Grete Wilens, who was only 21 years old at the time - glamorous, dazzling music of the "Golden Twenties". The audience did not let the orchestra leave before the Wilens song filled the Mozart Hall for a second time.