Friday, July 21, 2023 7:30 p.m.
Studio Bell at the National Music Centre
Purcell Fairy Queen (selected acts)
Korngold 4 Shakespeare Songs
Saariaho Petals
Dinuk Wijeratne Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems
Ravel La Valse
For centuries, artists have been inspired by works of past masters and modern contemporaries, with results that resonate and echo through the ages. The first two works on this innovative program are inspired by Shakespeare: an enchanting “semi-opera” based on Midsummer Night’s Dream is filled with rustic dances and dreamy sensuality, and Korngold’s songs are a treasure trove of fluid, voluptuous lyricism. Petals is filled with “fragile coloristic passages,” and Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems is an irresistible mashup of old and new. Sort of a parallel version of itself, La Valse was written for orchestra but premiered in this two-piano version. One of Ravel’s most colorful and popular works, it gradually evolves from an elegant Viennese waltz into a sinister danse macabre.
6:30 PM: Prelude talk by Mark Limacher