Esa-Pekka Salonen: season opening
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Tue 23 Sep 2008, 7:30pm
Royal Festival Hall, London
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Vadim Repin violin
Stephen Gould Oedipus
Ekaterina Gubanova Jocasta
Kyle Ketelsen Creon/Messenger
Franz-Josef Selig Tiresias
Andrew Kennedy Shepherd
Simon Russell Beale narrator
Philharmonia Voices
| Bartók | Suite, The Miraculous Mandarin |
|---|---|
| Prokofiev | Violin Concerto No. 2 |
| Stravinsky | Oedipus Rex |
Esa-Pekka Salonen has chosen to open his first season as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor with a performance of Stravinsky’s extraordinary neo-classical opera-oratorio based on Sophocles’s most famous tragedy, Oedipus the King. Stravinsky chose to juxtapose a colossal, powerful musical score against a dramatic background that is stark and ritualistic, with a Narrator providing a spoken commentary as inexorable Fate pursues the King
of Thebes and his wife Jocasta towards the play’s shocking conclusion.
‘O, this lofty all-discerning Oedipus: He is in the snare. He alone does not know it. And then the truth strikes him. He falls. He falls headlong.’
Narrator, Oedipus Rex (ee cummings translation)
Listen to extracts of pieces in this concert.
Read Esa-Pekka Salonen's biography.
This evening's concert is supported by The Meyer Foundation.
Tickets: £45 £38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin (Suite)
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
DG 477 6198 (with A Night on the Bare Mountain, original version, and The Rite of Spring)
Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin (Complete)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi
Decca Eloquence 476 2686 (with Stravinsky Petrushka, 1947 version)
Orchestre National de Lyon/David Robertson
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901777 (Bartók collection; Mandarin includes bars additional to the published score)
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2
Vadim Repin/Hallé Orchestra/Kent Nagano
Erato 0630-10696-2 (with Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1)
David Oistrakh/Philharmonia O/Alceo Galliera
EMI 5 62888 2 (Prokofiev collection)
Beethoven Violin Concerto and ‘Kreutzer’ Violin Sonata
Vadim Repin/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Riccardo Muti; Martha Argerich (piano)
DG 477 6596
Stravinsky Oedipus rex
Zdenek Kroupa, Vera Soukupova, Zdenek Kroupa, Karel Berman, Eduard Haken, Ivo Zidek, Antonin Zlesak, Jean Desailly/Prague Philharmonic Choir/Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Karel Ancerl
Supraphon SU3674-2 (with Symphony of Psalms)
Rene Kollo, Tatiana Troyanos, Ezio Flagello, Tom Krause, David Evitts, Frank Hoffmeister, Michael Wagner/Harvgard Glee Club/Boston Symphony Orchestra/Leonard Bernstein
Sony 88697 00819 (with Symphony of Psalms)
Ronald Dowd, Patricia Johnson, Raimund Herincx, Harold Blackburn, Alberto Remedios, Sir Ralph Richardson/Sadler’s Wells Opera Chorus/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis
[sung in English]
Classics for Pleasure 5 85011 2
Vinson Cole, Anne Sofie von Otter, Simon Estes, Hans Sotin, Nicolai Gedda/Swedish Radio Chorus, Ericson Chamber Choir, Orphei Drängar/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sony SK48057
Stravinsky The Firebird; The Rite of Spring
Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sony SBK89874
John Adams Naïve and Sentimental Music
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Nonesuch 7559 79636 2
This concert is part of :
Related concerts
- Nicola Luisotti and Boris Giltburg (22/01/2009)
- Martyn Brabbins at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (03/02/2009)
- Martyn Brabbins conducts at De Montfort Hall (04/02/2009)
- Gustavo Dudamel conducts at Bedford Corn Exchange (15/02/2009)
- Gustavo Dudamel conducts Estevez, Lalo and Prokofiev (17/02/2009)
- Gustavo Dudamel conducts at St David's Hall, Cardiff (19/02/2009)
- The Bach Choir (26/02/2009)
- Martyn Brabbins conducts at Bedford Corn Exchange (25/03/2009)
- Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts at Bedford Corn Exchange (15/04/2009)
- Nikolai Lugansky plays Rachmaninov (16/04/2009)
