Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur performs "Baroque Melting"
PATHÉTIQUE WITH GEMMA NEW
If there is one piece that has internalized the season's theme of "transgression" to the core, then it is Tchaikovsky's "Symphonie Pathétique". Lament and sadness are unmistakable in the first movement, and even the beautiful, tender second movement tells of unfulfilled happiness: as a waltz in the "wrong" 5/4 time, it perhaps symbolizes the pain of a social outsider who remained Tchaikovsky (as a cosmopolitan in Russia, as a Russian abroad, as a homosexual in bourgeois society) despite all his successes. Does the triumphant third movement even convey disgust at these successes? At the latest in the slow final movement, entitled "Adagio lamentoso", a feeling breaks through that we can probably all identify with at certain times: the irreconcilable lament about transience. The young New Zealand conductor Gemma New combines Tchaikovsky with two contemporary works: a concerto that Efraín Oscher wrote for the soloist Edicson Ruiz on his highly virtuoso double bass, which combines neo-baroque verve with Latin American rhythms. The orchestral piece "Baroque Melting" by the Canadian composer Vivian Fung also begins in a very baroque manner, only to soon (as the title suggests) "melt" in a variety of ways. Musical "transgression" has never been a greater pleasure! A pleasure that ultimately touches and invites reflection.
Program:
Vivian Fung, Baroque Melting for harpsichord and string orchestra
Efraín Oscher, Barroqueana Venezolana No. 4 for double bass and orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 74 “Pathétique”
