Jeremy Ovenden, Photo: Alan Holden, www.jeremyovenden.com
Violinist Joshua Bell and tenor Jeremy Ovenden perform Mozart, Brahms, Zemlinsky and Szymanowski with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski at London's Royal Festival Hall
The masterworks of Brahms and Mozart, with the Symphony No. 32 and the Violin Concerto in D, respectively, are set alongside two rarities of the 20th century on a programme that seams together a grand narrative of musical legacy. Zemlinksy himself won the support of Brahms, who recognised his talent and recommended one of his compositions for publication. Yet Zemlinski's life was fraught with worry and his 23rd Psalm is effectively a call to God, with music that moves from fear to despair and ecstasy in a deeply sensitive manner. The performance of the 23rd Psalm by the London Philharmonic Orchestra provides the ideal companion for Szymanowski's Third Symphony, The Song of the Night. Set to the Sufi poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi's, the work paints an emotional portait, a vast nocturnal landscape, a hauntingly divine leap into the unknown, into the beauty of the night, captured by a vocal solo, chorus and orchestra. performed by voice, chorus & orchestra.
Szymanowski wrote his Song of the Night for his mother, Anna Szymanowska in 1914, completing it in late July of 1916. It sets poet Tadeusz Miciński's translation of Song of the Night by the 13th century Persian poet, Jalaluddin Rumi. The composition is highly emotional, even ecstatic, using the night as a metaphor for the mystery of God and the supernatural. A range of Oriental influences - melodies and rhythms - punctuate the unusual composition. The melodies are written in very high registers, creating a bold orchestral colour that hardly resembled any other European music of that time. The single movement is broken down into three phases: one or tenor solo, chorus and orchestra standing for an introduction, the orchestral composed in the style of an Oriental scherzo and another orchestral reminiscent of an adagio with a culmination (mystery) and coda. Szymanowski's fellow composer Witold Lutosławski felt "quite dizzy for a number of weeks" after he first heard it.
The whole work is more similar to a symphonic poem than to a conventional symphony, an observation made by Szymanowski himself. Szymanowski called his work more of a symphonic poem than a Symphony, more melodic than declamatory, with a choir whose presence is "rather episodic". The work was first performed in London the 24th of October, 1921, with Albert Coates conducting. It was another seven years before the work really gained in popularity and it has been performed around the world ever since. The most well-known performances and recordings of the work have been conducted by Simon Rattle and Pierre Boulez.
The concert on the 22nd of February takes place at 7:30 p.m., preceded by a free lecture at 6:15 by Dr Stephen Downes, Reader in Musicology at the University of Surrey on the music of Szymanowski and Zemlinsky. The concert will be broadcast live by BBC Radio 3.
For detailed information on Karol Szymanowski, see www.karolszymanowski.pl
Programme:
Mozart - Symphony No. 32
Brahms - Violin Concerto
Zemlinsky - Psalm 23, Op. 14
Szymanowski - Symphony No. 3 (The Song of the Night)
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Joshua Bell on violin
Jeremy Ovenden tenor
with the London Philharmonic Choir
Source: Southbank Centre, Polskamusic.pl