Berlin-based Orchestras
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin / Marek Janowski
Past Dates
Between both works lies the core of the 20th century and, like a sharp anticipation or reflection, they are characterised by a disinterested clear-sightedness. The drama of Bluebeard’s Castle tells a tale of murder that leads into the hall of mirrors of the inner human life, like a film noir, and yet it tells nothing but the truth. Bartók’s music creates pure expressionism, making everyone an accomplice in its addiction to sound. For the late Shostakovich, however, the high-stylised Renaissance poetry of Michelangelo Buonarotti serves as a lens through which he observes his time. The images captured by his music only reveal the essential; yet in a peculiar glow: evening-red, politically too.
Concert Programme
Dmitri Shostakovich [1906–1975]
Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti
for bass and orchestra op. 145a [1974]
Truth – Morning – Love – Separation – Anger – Dante – Th the Exile – Creativity – Night – Death – Immortality
Béla Bartók [1881–1945]
Duke Bluebeard’s Castle op. 11 [1911]
Opera in one act, libretto Béla Balázs
in Hungarian
Cast
Otto Sander speaker
Petra Lang mezzo soprano
Albert Dohmen bass
Johan Reuter bass [Shostakovich]