MDR-Konzerte am Morgen: Verzweifle nicht

In the organizer's words:

MDR Symphony Orchestra
MDR Radio Choir
Dennis Russell Davies - Conductor

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Missa sacra in C minor op. 147

Robert Schumann
"Do not despair in the valley of sorrows" op. 93
Motet for male choir and orchestra

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Symphony in C minor Hob. I:95

Robert Schumann composed the Missa sacra for church services in 1852 - a work that expresses a general religious feeling rather than a denominational one. The motet Verzweifle nicht, which Schumann initially described as a "religious song", was performed for the first time on July 4, 1850 for a secular occasion - the 25th anniversary of the St. Pauli University Singers' Association in Leipzig. Haydn's Fifth London Symphony shows the composer to be independent of courtly taste and circumstances: Pathetic, serious, passionate - and unusually in a minor key - he shapes this work, which thus forges a programmatic link back to Schumann.

Concert introduction 10:15 am in the Schumann-Eck