Baritone Christian Gerhaher, admired by audiences for his powerful expression and moving voice, sings of the heavenly lightness of love, and the pain of its loss, in Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été.
A completely different scene from those mysterious and melancholy summer nights is conjured in Summer Pastorale by the Franco-Swiss composer Arthur Honegger. This short work of 1920 captivates with tranquil impressions of nature and warm orchestral colours.
The concert with French conductor Stéphane Denève finishes with a masterpiece from Stravinsky’s neo-classical period: Dumbarton Oaks, a concerto in E-flat named after the residence of the patron who commissioned it (near Washington, DC). It’s an ingenious jeu d’esprit that plays with stylistic, formal and development patterns from music history, using a wealth of combinations and overlaps that go far beyond the simple joys of quotation.