Program description 8 november

Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande

Barber: Adagio for strings

Bordewijk Roepman: Epiloog

Break

Stravinsky: Symfonie nr. 1

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A musical quatrain

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The works on this program form a musical quartet, with elements of refinement, tranquility, longing and vitality. Each piece highlights an aspect of the human emotional world, like four scenes in a single story.

The world of Pelléas et Mélisande is one of mist, caves and dark forests. A prince finds a mysterious girl in the forest, but his brother wins her heart. Their love is forbidden and the couple meet their deaths. Fauré's refined sounds are of a moving simplicity and fairy-tale-like beauty.

Barber's Adagio for Strings has been called the saddest music in the history of music. It is often performed on mournful occasions such as the funeral of Princess Diana and the commemoration of 9/11. The Adagio touches the soul deeply.

Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman would have liked to pursue a career in music, but her Rotterdam family did not consider this appropriate. Later, as the wife of the writer Bordewijk, she was given the opportunity to compose. Epilogue was written in 1943. The music expresses an impatient desire to be freed from the tensions of war.

Stravinsky dedicated his first symphony to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, who clearly influenced him. Much of the musical splendor that made Rimsky-Korsakov so beloved, can be found in this work. But in this energetic early work, Stravinsky also looks ahead to his innovative Firebird suite, which he wrote three years later.