Composer: Elizabeth Ogonek, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel
Orchestra: Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Elim Chan
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA1038
Release: 2024
Size: 1.18 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (2nd suite), Op.64ter
01. I. The Montagues and Capulets
02. II. The Young Juliet
03. III. Friar Laurence
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (1st suite), Op.64bis
04. V. Masks
05. VI. Romeo and Juliet
06. VII. Death of Tybalt
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (2nd suite), Op.64ter
07. V. Romeo and Juliet Before Parting
08. VII. Romeo at Juliet’s Grave
Ogonek: All These Lighted Things
09. I. Exuberant, playful, bright
10. II. Gently drifting, hazy
11. III. Buoyant
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
12. I. Lever de jour
13. II. Pantomime
14. III. Danse générale
Anyone who has seen the conductor Elim Chan on stage is familiar with the immense energy produced by her baton. With the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, of which she has been Principal Conductor since 2019, she celebrates a genre dear to her heart, ballet music, which places the emphasis on both physical movement and orchestral power. More than a century of ballet music is presented here, with excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet suites, oscillating between passionate love and fatal violence; Suite no.2 from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, the fruit of his first collaboration with Diaghilev in 1912, which he described as a ‘choreographic symphony’; and finally a work by Elizabeth Ogonek, All These Lighted Things, premiered in 2017. Although the title of these ‘three little dances for orchestra’ comes from a poem that evokes a soothing union with the earth at the dawn of a sunny day, the piece ends with a sort of folk dance that degenerates into an orchestral storm.