KOECHLIN | VERS LA VOUTE ETOILEE
MESSIAEN | CONCERT A QUATRE
SAINT-SAËNS | DANSE MACABRE OP. 40
STRAUSS | DER ROSENKAVALIER, SUITE FOR ORCHESTRA
STRAUSS | DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS FROM THE OPERA SALOME
Jouko Laivuori, piano
Tomas Nuňez, cello
Yuki Koyama, flute
Kyeong Ham, oboe
Ariane Matiakh, conductor
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Charles Echlin’s Vers la vote étoilée takes us “towards the starry vault, on a journey to very distant places far from earth yet still in touch with human emotions”. Olivier Messiaen, in his Concerto for Four, says a fond farewell to composition, while Camille Saint-Saëns paints music’s most famous portrait of death in his Danse macabre.
His opera Salome, with its erotic dance of the seven veils, made Richard Strauss the most talked-about composer of his day. When Der Rosenkavalier was premiered a few years later, special trains had to be run between Berlin and Dresden to cope with the huge concert audience.