The thrill of the chase, a brilliantly giddy piano concerto and Berlioz’s symphony of fantastical dreams.
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A Count goes hunting on a Sunday. A Musician (ok, it’s Berlioz) poisons himself with opium. According to the music, they both come to grief: one is chased by demons to eternity, the other is overwhelmed by dreams of witches and the scaffold. It seems wrong to enjoy their fates so much, but who can resist it when these wild stories have been given such exhilarating and evocative music?
Ravel’s piano concerto is just as thrilling – it begins with the crack of a whip and ends in a jazz-inflected whirlwind of notes. Fantastique!
FRANCK The Accursed Huntsman
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
Pinchas Steinberg conductor
Louis Lortie piano
Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.
AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – FRANCK The Accursed Huntsman
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA 480 0052
Track 2 – RAVEL Piano Concerto in G: 3rd movement (Presto)
Alicia de Larrocha, piano, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conduced by Lawrence Foster
DECCA 476 235-1
Track 3 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: At the Ball
Track 4 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: March to the Scaffold
Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch
PHILIPS 476 7962
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.