Der Zauberlehrling

«Now the old wizard has gone away for once»: Among the older members of the Tonkunstler audience are still some whose schooldays involved learning all or part of Goethe’s «Sorcerer’s Apprentice» by heart. In Paul Dukas’s setting, the events unfold wordlessly, of course – but with so many vivid details that one gets the gist. So far we have found ourselves along the Germany-France axis. The France-Russia axis is also present in this exquisite programme, which clearly bears Fabien Gabel’s signature, in the form of Igor Stravinsky and his early orchestral work «Fireworks». Its brilliance is said to have persuaded the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev to commission Stravinsky to write «The Firebird», which premiered in Paris in 1910. Those who are perhaps only familiar with the famous thundering machine sounds of Alexander Mossolov’s «Iron Foundry» will be surprised by the beguilingly sumptuous late Romanticism of his Harp Concerto, for which none other than Xavier de Maistre is the soloist. In addition, we bring you fairy tales and myths: a sample from Dukas’s Bluebeard opera «Ariane et Barbe-bleue» – and finally, along the France-Greece axis, Maurice Ravel’s ecstatic dream of antiquity, the second suite from his fantastic ballet «Daphnis et Chloé».