Vancouver Symphony to perform Wagner with soprano

• What: Christina Kowalski sings Wagner with the Vancouver Symphony. Salvador Brotons conducts.

• When: 3 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday.

• Where: Skyview High School Concert Hall, 1300 N.W. 139th St., Vancouver.

• Cost: $50 reserved, $35 general, $30 seniors and $10 students.

• Information: 360-735-7278 or visit vancouversymphony.org.

German composer Richard Wagner is known for big operatic works that require large orchestras and singers with massive voices. But not all of his music demands a full-throttle larynx and an armada of musicians. Believe it or not, Wagner wrote some tender pieces that rest on the quieter end of the musical spectrum. One of these is the “Wesendonck Lieder” (“Wesendonck Songs”), which will be sung by soprano Christina Kowalski at the Vancouver Symphony’s first concert of 2015.

The “Wesendonck Lieder” consists of five songs that were written when Wagner and his wife, Minna, lived in Zurich, as guests of the wealthy Wesendonck family. Wagner set music to the poetry of Mathilde Wesendonck and began an affair with her. The songs are imbued with an overwhelming sense of longing, and they influenced one of his famous operas, “Tristan and Isolde.”

“The ‘Wesendonck Lieder’ are hard to describe,” said Kowalski. “They are not your typical Wagner, but then again, they are. What I mean is that you definitely hear Wagner’s musical style in these fabulous songs, but here he is more subdued and more intense in supporting the lyrics of the singer rather than utilizing every last bit of the orchestra to bring tension to the meaning of these pieces.”

The songs are very reflective and express deep emotional content that can be felt by listeners. They also sound best when the voice has a dark timbre, which is one of Kowalski’s calling card.

“You don’t even have to understand German to realize what kind of mood is sought in each piece,” said Kowalski. “From brooding to a feeling of relief and finally to the slow ascent into wonderful dreams of spring and love — you will find it all in this song cycle.”

Although Kowalski has been a regular in the orchestra’s chamber music series, this will be her first appearance with the full orchestra. She is a native of Germany, where she earned a master’s degree in music and drama from Frankfurt’s Academy for Music and Art and enjoyed a burgeoning career in opera before moving to Battle Ground with her husband, Kristopher Holien, who worked as a firefighter for Clark County.

In 2002, they moved to Gig Harbor, where she has been singing up a storm with Skagit Opera, Vashon Opera and Tacoma Opera. She also teaches voice at the University of Puget Sound, has a private studio with 30 students, and is pursuing a doctorate in music at the University of Washington. Her husband is currently serving as the one true tiller on the No. 3 truck in the central district of Seattle. They are raising a 6-year old son, Cameron, who will start first grade in the fall.

Kowlaski acknowledged that it was not easy to rebuild her career in the United States. “I inherited a lot of persistence from my mother, so I just toughed it out,” she said. “Now I have a regular and diverse singing schedule over the whole year. I also am part of the Trio Seraphin, which gives me the chance to work on an unusual repertoire, and I still get to sing overseas.”

The other big piece on the Vancouver Symphony program is the Third Symphony of Johannes Brahms. It is the shortest of the four symphonies Brahms wrote and may be the least well-known because each of its four movements ends quietly. Yet in terms of mood, this symphony has an intoxicating mixture of passion and pessimism, of restlessness and serenity. Some scholars feel that this work offers a compelling, highly revealing musical self-portrait of Brahms, because he was a gruff fellow who never married, yet had a lifelong crush on Clara Schumann, the wife of his good friend, the composer Robert Schumann.

As for Clara Schumann, she loved the Brahms Third. “What harmonious mood pervades the whole!” she wrote to Brahms after playing through the symphony at the piano. “All the movements seem to be of one piece, one beat of the heart, each one a jewel.”

The concert will begin with George Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture,” a fun, frothy piece that he wrote after enjoying a vacation for a couple of weeks in Havana during February 1932. It is infused with infectious rumba rhythms and a distinctive style that veers between bluesy and jazzy.

The “Cuban Overture,” initially given the title of “Rumba,” received its premiere in August 1932 at the first all-Gershwin concert at New York’s Lewisohn Stadium for an enthusiastic audience of 18,000 people. It was reported that 5,000 were turned away. “It was,” Gershwin said afterwards, “the most exciting night I have ever had.”