RTÉ NSO: Buckley, Lalo, Stravinsky
Jaime Martín, conductor Ellinor D’Melon, violin Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm
Programme
Irene Buckley Awakening (RTÉ NSO Commission)
Lalo Symphonie espagnole
Stravinsky The Firebird (1945)
In the depth of December darkness as the Winter Solstice nears, three works that promise the return of light and warmth, including two colour-saturated masterpieces with the sun-soaked passion of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole taking the edge off winter’s chill, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird stirring the imagination with a combustible fantasy of a princess, an ogre and a bird made from living flames.
Composed as the world came to a standstill in 2020, Irene Buckley’s Awakening was given its first performance by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra earlier this year, and reflects, says the composer ‘the wondrous transition from the stasis of winter to the rebirth of spring’. In music of dense, layered textures it suggests ‘the opening up and revealing of new growth, the springing forth of new life. Darkness emerging into light’.