Ravel, Say and Rachmaninoff
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The Concert
Maurice Ravel La valse
Fazıl Say Violin Concerto (1001 Nights in the Harem)
Serge Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin
London Symphony Orchestra
Listen
Available to listen online through BBC Sounds
Spellbinding storytellers, dancing ghosts and melodies that will stay with you forever.
The Programme
The fairy-tale heroine Scheherazade must keep her audience entertained on pain of death in the One Thousand and One Nights. In Fazıl Say’s concerto, the violin plays the part of the endlessly fascinating tale-teller.
The piece is paired with impassioned music originally written for the ballet: Ravel’s haunting waltz and Rachmaninoff’s mysterious Symphonic Dances. Ravel imagined whirling couples in a Viennese concert hall in music that seems haunted by World War I. Rachmaninoff also conjures up a ghostly waltz, amid the expressive melodies of the last music he ever wrote.
The Performers
Patricia Kopatchinskaja brings her sense of musical adventure to Say’s score, which was written especially for her. Sir Antonio Pappano, Chief Conductor Designate, and the LSO take control of the narrative with finesse.
This is the idea – to have stuff that’s slightly off the beaten path, but very much anchored by pieces that are strongly a part of the repertoire.
– Sir Antonio Pappano
Recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3
Header Image © Mark Allan
Dive Deeper
Read: 'For a conductor, this is a dream position'
‘The idea of music that, by its very nature, dances, has been in my mind, and how this can be pushed to the extreme. I think that’s the thread that pulls everything together in my concerts this season … It’s that kind of risk that I find so exciting in music.’
Sir Antonio Pappano, Chief Conductor Designate, introduces his concerts in the 2023/24 season.
