Symphonyconcert11

“Pablo González propels the orchestra to tremendous precision”, whereby “he banks on elasticity, and downright performs magic at transitions or hesitations,” the music critic Stefan Drees judged about the conductor of the eleventh symphony concert. The Spaniard can work his magic here as well: after all, there are two dance stories to tell without dancers, choreography or stage sets – works composed about a hundred years ago for the legendary Ballets Russes. Manuel de Fallas “El sombrero de tres picos” leads us to a small Andalusian village in which a miller and his beautiful wife live a happy and contented life until one day the man with the “three-cornered hat” shows up – the provincial governor – and attempts to put the moves on the miller’s wife. Dance forms like the fandango, seguidilla, farruca and jota and overlapping rhythms evoke a lively image of Spain in the mind’s eye. The plot for Igor Stravinsky’s very first ballet music “L’oiseau de feu”, in which a dark magician wreaks havoc and the firebird of the title symbolises good, has its roots in Russian fairy tales. Impressionist colours and Russian folklore magically coalesce, and a wild danse macabre gives a preview of the Stravinsky of “Sacre du printemps”.