Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Alexej Gerassimez / Thomas Guggeis
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Dance, language and fantastic images: the three orchestral works on this concert programme by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra are bursting with creative energy. Ravel wrote »Daphnis et Chloé« as ballet music for Diaghilev’s famous »Ballets russes«. In fact, the composition first celebrated its great success as suites on the concert stage, where its genius is revealed to its full advantage. Ravel had a »great musical fresco painting« in mind for the ancient love story between the two outcast infants, »less concerned with the ancient than with remaining true to the Greece of my dreams«. He pours the rising sun, the song of the nymph and an ecstatic final frenzy into an early 20th century painting in a brilliant blaze of colour.