Hommage musical à David Hockney - 13 avril

They also provide the opportunity for the audience to hear Britten’s rarely performed Cabaret Songs, composed based on writings by poet W. H. Auden. This elegant and striking work epitomises unique English non-conformist spirit and rhymes both with the cultural changes occurring in the Swinging Sixties, and ultimately, with joyous, tongue-in-cheek side of Mr Hockney’s world. 

The second part of the concert centres on French music and showcases the great optimism and joie de vivre so often seen in David Hockney’s work, as evidenced by his series of drawings entitled Love Life. After Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye, and Satie’s Parade - for which Hockney designed the sets for New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1981 - the evening ends with the warmth and energy of Maurice Ravel’s famed Rapsodie Espagnole.

The complicity of pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy with percussionists Colin Currie and Owen Gunnell, along with the exquisite voices of Elena Stikhina and Nicky Spence, bring this lively, colourful programme to life, inviting everyone to join in a celebration of art and life.

Programme:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  The Magic Flute, Overture
  Transcription by Ferrucio Busoni
  
  
•  Igor Stravinsky
  The Rake’s Progress (excerpts)
  Select arias for soprano and tenor
  
  
• Benjamin Britten
  Cabaret Songs, for tenor and piano
  
  
• Maurice Ravel
  Ma Mère l’Oye, for two pianos and percussion
  
  
• Erik Satie
  Parade, for four hands 
  
  
• Maurice Ravel
  Rapsodie Espagnole, for two pianos and percussion