symphony concert09

The wonderful and seductive singing of the sirens has been the downfall of many a mariner. An iridescent piece by Korean composer Unsuk Chin breathes new life into the myth of the sirens, setting texts by Homer and James Joyce – interpreted with irresistible force and lyric intensity by soprano Donatienne Michel-Dansac. The dangers of life at sea are also the subject of “Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten. The four “Sea Interludes” bring together the opera’s emotional storms. Concluding the concert, the two French colorists Ravel and Debussy have “captured” the sea in tone-paintings revealing the most artistic and subtle compositional nuances. This is music that evolves from the finely detailed interplay of numerous very small motifs. As Debussy once wrote himself: in a “mysterious convergence of nature and the imagination.”