Programme:
Charlotte Sohy: Danse mystique
Pjotr Tjajkovskij: Romeo and Juliet
– INTERMISSION –
Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations
Participating:
Charlotte Sohy: Danse mystique
Born into a middle-class Parisian family, Charlotte Sohy (1887-1955) was introduced to the Parisian musical elite at an early age, with friends such as Nadia Boulanger and Mel Bonis. Her thirty-five works include chamber music and choral works as well as masses and a symphony – the latter, however, was never performed in public. Despite the tireless support of her husband, the composer Marcel Labey, Sohy had to fight to be taken seriously and sometimes used the pseudonym Charles Sohy to gain recognition in French cultural circles. Her compositions are characterised by a refined sense of phrasing, in cases where text is present. But also by the dramatic power of her instrumental compositions, such as in Danse mystique from 1922.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is an overture-fantasy based on William Shakespeare's tragic love story of the same name. The work is based on three of the play's main themes. Of these, the recurring ‘love motif’ is probably the best known, as it has been used countless times in television series and films. At its premiere in 1870, Romeo and Juliet received lukewarm reviews, and somewhat later it was hissed at a concert in Vienna. Today, however, it is established as one of Tchaikovsky's most beloved and performed orchestral works.
Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations
Elgar's Enigma Variations is an orchestral work from 1899 in which each of the fourteen variations represents a person in the composer's life – his friends, family and himself. The name ‘Enigma’ is linked to Elgar's statement about a hidden theme behind the entire work – a theme that is not played, but which is ‘related’ to the other variations. Over the years, many have speculated that the hidden theme is some popular melody or other, that fits harmoniously with Elgar's – for example, the well-known song about friendship, Auld Lang Syne. After the premiere of the Enigma Variations in London in 1899, Elgar's career and international reputation took off, and within a few years it had been performed in Düsseldorf, St Petersburg and New York.
About events at the Academy of Music and Drama
