Last nights "Friday" concert from the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
Note: that this video will likely only last until next Friday morning before being
deleted.
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Vedernikov conductor
Oksana Volkova mezzo-soprano
Rachmaninov
The Isle of the Dead / 20’
Mussorgsky (Arr. Shortakovich)
Songs and Dances of Death / 25’
Mussorgsky (Orch. Ravel)
Pictures at an Exhibition / 35’
Promotional spiel:
Welcome to the glorious world of Russian music – every bit as emotional as its football!
Guiding you through the stormy Russian soul in two orchestral masterpieces and a compelling song cycle dealing with misadventure, war, death and fantasy (not unlike the World Cup, then) are Russian conductor Alexander Vedernikov – ‘exhilarating from beginning to end’ (
Financial Times) – and ‘mesmerising’ (
LatvianNational Opera) Belarussian mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova.
Inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s mysterious painting of a coffin’s final journey across deathly still waters towards a forbidding shore, Rachmaninov’s The Isle of the Dead is hair-raising, spine-tingling stuff. Moving with unsettling dream-like fluidity, it gives gripping voice to powerful, primal emotions in music of unforgettable passion.
Brace yourself for the colourful, contagious world of Mussorgsky’s
Pictures at an Exhibition – a dark kaleidoscope of images drawn from Victor Hartmann’s paintings populated by gnomes, quarrelling children, a strutting hut on hen’s legs (no, really) and unhatched chickens in a bizarre ballet. Admit it: you’re curious. In Maurice Ravel’s ravishing orchestration, it’s a wonderful collision of the art gallery, the cinema blockbuster and a symphony orchestra, all hallucinating together.
Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death are as beautiful, bleak and hypnotic as their gleefully grim title suggests.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradiowebpage.html#!rii=b16_10951677_8861_19-10-2018_