LO SPETTACOLO

Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin with violin soloist Leonidas Kavakos in a performance of Stravinsky and Beethoven in Brussels.

The Firebird, the first work Stravinsky wrote for Sergey Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, was a resounding success at its première in Paris in 1910. The struggle between the good firebird and the evil magician Kashchei from Fokin’s libretto finds its musical match in a score rich in contrasts which drives home the alternation between diatonic and chromatism at a breathtaking tempo.

Though Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is now regarded as one of the masterpieces of his great repertoire, it was not unanimously well-received after its creation in 1806 and it was forty years before it was performed again. Even then Beethoven was not in tune with the prevailing taste, which preferred a virtuoso solo work with a small orchestral accompaniment, while in Beethoven’s concerto the soloist acted as a primus inter pares, building with the orchestra a dense and propelling construction.

This promises to be an inspiring musical evening at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

Last update 2012 Editorial Team Classictic.com