The SIU Symphony Orchestra will perform “Reverie: Of Longing and Infinity” on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at Shryock Auditorium. (Photo provided)
November 13, 2026
SIU Symphony Orchestra drifts into German Romanticism with ‘Reverie’ on Tuesday
CARBONDALE, Ill. — A good story can pull you in so deeply that the room around you fades. The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Symphony Orchestra will offer that kind of escape with “Reverie: Of Longing and Infinity,” a free public concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Shryock Auditorium.
Rossana Cauti, assistant professor of practice and director of the SIU String Orchestras in the SIU School of Music, will lead the program featuring two 19th century heavyweights: Richard Wagner’s overture to “Tannhäuser” and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73.
Wagner and Brahms emerged from the German Romantic movement, when composers pursued powerful emotions and explored the orchestra’s full expressive range, Cauti said. Over the evening, the music will take listeners from quiet, introspective moments to sweeping dramatic scenes.
An evening in two acts
Opening the concert, Wagner’s overture unfolds almost like a stage play without words. Its music wrestles with faith, desire and the hope of redemption — drifting from hushed, prayerful passages into blazing full-orchestra brilliance. Cauti said its soaring lines and massive climaxes showcase “Wagner’s distinctive approach to musical storytelling.”
After the intensity of Wagner, Brahms’ Second Symphony offers a warmer contrast. Often regarded as one of the composer’s brightest and most heartfelt works, it features long, singing melodies and lush instrumental colors that evoke the outdoors, Cauti said. Its peaceful, pastoral surface tells only part of the story. Cauti said the symphony has “a remarkable emotional complexity,” shifting between tender intimacy and grand, expansive gestures.
Together, the two works capture the restless imagination at the heart of the Romantic era: a longing for beauty and for what lies beyond everyday life. Cauti said both reflect “the yearning for something beyond the ordinary” and music’s ability “to evoke worlds that words cannot fully describe.”
For more information, contact the SIU School of Music at music@siu.edu.