On Wednesday 8 February the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed music by Prokofiev, Ravel, Wagner and Scriabin for Journyes of Discovery: Ecstasy, a concert that delved into the musical langauge of love, longing and spritiual ascension in Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall with Music Director Vasily Petrenko.
Read our round-up to see more photos and reactions from the evening.
Photos credit: Andy Paradise
Opening the concert was a selection of music from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet that the Orchestra performed its recent tour to Germany and Belgium, including The Young Juliet, the Dance of the Knights and The Death of Tybalt.
"...the RPO played them with swagger, weight and swift-fingered finesse, allowing a succession of principals to shine."
The Guardian
Next in the programme was Ravel's Piano Concerto in G performed by Spanish pianist Javier Perianes, returning to play with the Orchestra for the first time since 2016 with the the French composer's jazz-infused showcase for a soloist's virtuosity and sensivity at the keyboard. Afterwards Javier treated us to an encore of Debussy's The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.
After the interval was a second musical drama that told of the ecstasy of two lovers who are destined to be together in death - Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, which opens with the Prelude and Liebestod. Few pieces feature a chord which is named after it, and the much-analysed 'Tristan chord', with its burning tension that is left unresolved, represented a shift in the harmonic world of Romanticism towards the worlds beyond the veil in the mystical and symbolic.
An absolutely stonking performance of the Scriabin POEM OF ECSTASY ranking satisfyingly high on the indecency scale but given shape and seductiveness from @VasilyPetrenko @rpoonline That heady trumpet tune is still ricocheting somewhere around the South Bank area
— Edward Seckerson (@seckerson) February 9, 2023
Nobody did musical mysticism like Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. He criticised Wagner for having 'limited himself to the theatrical plane' and through The Poem of Ecstasy's full symphonic power, he displayed his vision of the universe 'embraced in flame' and of revelation through total, all-embracing art which is suggested at as the swirling, fragmentary musical ideas uniting in its body-quaking finale that shook the busy Royal Festival Hall.
"The orchestral playing was quite simply magnificent – the cumulative effect shattering."
Seen and Heard International
Certainly not an apprentice performance ? The tuba and bass rocked the Royal Festival Hall #arts #culture #London pic.twitter.com/zCWD5FH7ci
— Alan Hall ? (@alan_ha11) February 9, 2023
Fancy an encore? Go to our More Music page to discover more music linked to the music from the programme.