This concert conducted by Daniel Harding is pervaded with the themes of “light” and “nature”. For example, Richard Strauss begins his Also sprach Zarathustra with the most famous sunrise of musical history, then depicts with extravagant sounds the struggle of the individual against narrow-mindedness and mediocrity. The Korean composer Unsuk Chin, on the other hand, sets the behaviour of light rays to music in her iridescent Rocaná. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s song cycle On Wenlock Edge, with Andrew Staples as soloist, creates vivid tonal images in which the melancholy of the protagonist is reflected by English landscape scenes.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Daniel Harding conductor
Andrew Staples tenor
Unsuk Chin
Rocaná
Ralph Vaughan Williams
On Wenlock Edge, 6 Songs for tenor, piano und string quartet
Andrew Staples tenor
Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus spoke Zarathustra), op. 30