Abstract
During the nine years that Richard Wagner lived as a fugitive in Zurich, he conducted several concerts here. The most successful of these were the so-called May concerts, performed on the occasion of his 40th birthday in 1853. But in the years before and after - until 1855 - Richard Wagner appeared as a conductor in the Zurich Aktientheater and with the Zurich Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft. In addition to his own works, his programs frequently included works by Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he greatly admired, including his Symphony No. 3. In this concert, we juxtapose Wagner and Beethoven with the Violin Concerto by Mendelssohn, a composer revered by Wagner at the beginning of his career but later vehemently maligned. The Orchestra La Scintilla plays on historic instruments under the direction of Riccardo Minasi.