What does Tim Burton – a director of films poised between fairy tale and grotesque – have in common with the dignified classic, Joseph Haydn? The Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer argues that his orchestral miniature A Freak in Burbank was inspired by precisely these two figures, their common denominator being their original sense of humour. Humour and joy in an elegant, Rococo guise also sparkle throughout the youthful Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 (also known in its flute version), by the younger of the Classics, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written for the Italian oboist from Salzburg, Giuseppe Ferlendis.
Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole is not about literal ‘Spanishness’, but about conjuring up Spain through sound. It is a sensual, richly coloured work, built on subtle stylisations of rhythms and melodic patterns characteristic of the Iberian Peninsula (and Cuba too!), but above all on a dazzling, utterly masterly handling of orchestral timbres, in which, despite the impression of spontaneity, nothing is left to chance.
Claude Debussy’s slightly earlier, groundbreaking Nocturnes were seen as the musical counterpart of Impressionist painting (although Debussy himself disliked the label). Nuages almost suspend time in the hypnotic movement of shifting harmonies, while Fêtes evoke the atmosphere of a wild, phantasmagorical celebration – or perhaps its oneiric vision? In the nocturnal, mysterious Sirènes, the wordless vocalise of the chorus (the female voices of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir will show their mastery here) merges with the orchestra to create one of the most evocative musical soundscapes of the turn of the 20th century.
François Leleux will appear in the rare dual role of oboist and conductor. Internationally acclaimed in both capacities, he is also renowned for premiering new works for the oboe.
Piotr Maculewicz
