Repertoire
Friday Concert
Hans Abrahamsen: Nacht und Trompeten (Night and Trumpets) (1981) 11′
Sergei Rachmaninov: Raphsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 43 (1934) 22′
Igor Stravinsky: Le chant du rossignol (Song of the Nightingale). Suite (1917) 21′
Igor Stravinsky: L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird). Suite (1909-1910; 1919 version) 23′
Saturday Concert
Hans Abrahamsen: Nacht und Trompeten (Night and Trumpets) (1981) 11′
Paul Hindemith: Der Schwanendreher (The Swan Turner) for viola and orchestra (1935; rev. 1936) 27′
Igor Stravinsky: Le chant du rossignol (Song of the Nightingale). Suite (1917) 21′
Igor Stravinsky: L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird). Suite (1909-1910; 1919 version) 23′
Artists
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC)
Alim Beisembayev, piano
Cristina Cordero, viola
Pablo Rus Broseta, conductor
Program
Juan Eduardo Cirlot described L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird) as having an underlying “fiendish energy”. One of Igor Stravinsky’s best-known ballets and his first success, it was the outcome of a collaborative initiative with Sergei Diaghilev. A prime example of his primitivist stage, The Firebird is based on a popular Russian legend that symbolises the fight between good and evil, and it is a work that the composer returned to time and time again. The most famous version of this suite for orchestra maintains all its dynamism and expressive ingenuity.
Le chant du rossignol (The Song of a Nightingale) is an orchestral version of a previous work: the opera Le Rossignol (The Nightingale), completed in Paris after the commotion caused by the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). Its music is steeped in irony and it reveals Stravinsky’s talent for using just a few elements to build a whole universe.
With this Rhapsody, Sergei Rachmaninoff managed to create music with a hypnotic, dramatic quality that requires high technical skill. Conceived as variations on a well-known theme from the last of Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices, it is one of the major works from the composer’s late stage.
Few composers from the last century display such talented skills as Paul Hindemith. His viola concerto, Der Schwanendreher (The Swan Turner) exemplifies his masterly skills, applied to an instrument that he knew well and for which he wrote numerous works.
The young Hans Abrahamsen’s distinctive personality shines out in Nacht und Trompeten (Night and Trumpets) at a point at which the composer was engaged in a quest. A work dedicated to Hans Werner Henze, who premiered it, Nacht und Trompeten has forged an important reputation in the world of contemporary music.
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