For Cosima – and for the performance in the stairwell of his country estate in Tribschen nearby Luzern – Richard Wagner composed his ›Siegfried-Idyll‹ over motives of the opera of the same name. Its emergence is indirectly due to Joseph Haydn. His late London Symphonies had helped Wagner overcome personal and creative crises in 1869 during his exile in Switzerland. The young chamber orchestra Eroica Berlin loves musical cross references like this. In contrast to modern event and performance culture, the group always puts the music at the center, and is looking forward to performing Wagner’s ›Stairwell music‹ in the grand stairwell of the Augustusburg Palace as part of the Haydn-Festival. Let’s hope that, unlike during the world premiere of Haydn’s Symphony No. 102, the chandelier stays mounted to the ceiling. With mezzo-soprano Lioba Braun, Eroica Berlin also honors Mathilde Wesendonck, another Wagner muse from his Swiss years.