Viotti, Ravel & Strauss

One of France's greatest soloists meets one of the country's finest composers. In 2023 Gautier Capuçon gave the first performance of a new cello concerto that Thierry Escaich wrote for him. Musically, the concerto Morgengryets sange (Songs of the Dawn) is about lyricism - melodic themes that never end but are simply transformed. It is a work of light and shadow that moves from peaceful incantations to a ritual dance. Around Escaich's concerto, Lorenzo Viotti conducts two musical curiosities - one that goes well, the other very badly wrong. Richard Strauss considered himself a humorist and demonstrated it with his cartoon-like portrait of the fearless rogue of German folklore, Till Eulenspiegel, saying that he "just wanted to give the audience a good laugh - for once". Ravel's La Valse from 1920 begins as an affectionate joke on the iconic Viennese waltz. But in an age marked by war and industrialisation, Ravel's waltz spins out of control - and heads towards its own destruction in a gripping musical drama. Programme: Strauss / Till Eulenspiegel Bartók / The Miraculous Mandarin, suite Escaich / Morgengryets sange, cello concerto (Danish premiere) Ravel / La Valse

• Dirigent: Lorenzo Viotti
• Gautier Capuçoncello

RECORDINGS OF THE WORKS

Joseph-Maurice Ravel: La valse

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