Silk and Thorn

This concert is a musical tale of the conflict between the fleeting nature of dreams and the harsh reality of life. The works of Maurice Ravel and Karol Szymanowski converge at a point where the finest artistry of form becomes a fragile shield for raw emotions. The concert opens with a silken mirage of the Orient. A selection from Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin and Songs of a Fairy Tale Princess depicts a world brimming with sensual passion and metaphysics. It is followed by the ecstatic Roxana's Song. Ravel responds with dreamlike poems from the Shéhérazade cycle ( La flûte enchantée , L'indifférent ), which are the very essence of French impressionism. At the heart of the programme, we encounter the tragic dreamer, Don Quixote. Ravel’s final suite, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée , forms a poignant bridge between prayer and bitter rebellion. Here, the silk of dreams meets the thorns of reality. Following the bright colours of Ravel’s Cinq mélodies populaires grecques , we return to the Polish soil. In his Kurpie Songs , Szymanowski gets to the very core of human suffering. The narrative closes with a poignant youthful song to the words of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Daleko został cały świat (The whole world is far away), which evokes the calm and resignation of someone who leaves the clamour of the world behind to be alone with their own soul.