Munich Philharmonic: Ravel / Poulenc / StravinskyTugan Sokhiev (conductor), Lucas and Arthur Jussen (piano)
This event is in the past.
Though his attempts at composition were pitiful, he is considered a key personality in the history of music: As head of the legendary Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev understood like no other how to assemble the cream of each artistic discipline for his projects.
This event is in the past.
Though his attempts at composition were pitiful, he is considered a key personality in the history of music: As head of the legendary Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev understood like no other how to assemble the cream of each artistic discipline for his projects.
- Lucas and Arthur Jussen, piano
- Tugan Sokhiev, conductor
Who knows how Igor Stravinsky’s career would have panned out if Diaghilev had not dared to entrust the unknown young composer with a ballet composition. The sensational coup of The Firebird was followed a year later by Petrushka – a ballet in which puppets come to life. Ending in death, however, the plot is anything but light fare. For a ballet production with Spanish flair, Diaghilev asked Maurice Ravel to orchestrate his piano piece Alborada del gracioso in 1916. And a young Francis Poulenc, too, was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose a ballet: Les Biches, characterised by its colourful mix of styles, became one of the great successes of the Ballets Russes in 1924. In his Concerto for Two Pianos, Poulenc mixes high culture with jazz sounds, rococo with Far Eastern exoticism and thus, as with Les Biches, presents himself as a master of transition. The work, which is characterised by Mozartian lightness, will be played by Lucas and Arthur Jussen.
Programme
- Maurice Ravel: “Alborada del gracioso”
- Francis Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor
- Igor Stravinsky: “Petrushka”, 1911 version
