Karina Canellakis, conductor; Messiaen / Boulez / de Raaff / Rachmaninoff
The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir under the direction of Chief Conductor Karina Canellakis invite you to join them on an intimate sound experience rich in contrasts. The programme as part of the Musikfest Berlin 2025 takes the audience through the cycle of life and the great questions that confront people in the course of their sojourn on this planet.
Image gallery
Dirigentin Karina Canellakis breitet die Arme vor dem Orchester aus, die Musiker*innen streichen ihre Celli und im Hintergrund sieht man das Publikum.
At the age of 22, Pierre Boulez composed his cantata ‘Le soleil des eaux’; it was at the same age that Boulez’ teacher Olivier Messiaen wrote his first orchestral work ‘Les offrandes oubliées’. The two young composers strike out on their pioneering metaphysical path through new worlds of sound – now cautiously, now forcefully.
For his part, Sergei Rachmaninoff has his feet on the ground in his last composition as he looks back at his past life almost with nostalgia: triumphal exultation and threatening undertones, the nimble feet of a dancer and the brooding weight of symphonic writing – in his ‘Symphonic Dances’, Rachmaninoff summons up a galaxy of the highlights that enrich life on earth.
Composed in 1930, the symphonic meditation ‘Les offrandes oubliées’ by Olivier Messiaen forms a musical triptych. A poem by the composer that prefaces the score describes the themes of its musical elements: the Cross, Sin and the Eucharist. Extremes govern our perception of the work. With its glacial progress and constant suspension, the dolorous first part expresses deep sorrow. It is followed in Stravinskian manner by the rhythms of a descent into hell, only to rise again into the celestial sphere of a timeless and weightless redemption.
The great French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez would be celebrating his 100th birthday in March 2025. His music forms the focal point of a selection of concerts at the Musikfest Berlin. Words and music engage with one another in the works of Pierre Boulez, whose ‘Le soleil des eaux’ is a setting of two poems by the French writer René Char.
Crystal-clear and finely interwoven, the orchestral voices accompany a soprano melody that at times is left entirely to itself. The love-song of a lizard to a goldfinch, sung on a summer’s day, mutates abruptly into a powerful stream of energy generated by the choir – a mighty river carries away the filigree intimacy of the song.
It is in honour of Pierre Boulez that the Dutch composer Robin de Raaff, pupil of George Benjamin, has written his Cantata for choir and orchestra ‘L’Azur’. The poem of that name by Stéphane Mallarmé, the dedicatee of Boulez’ large-scale cantata ‘Pli selon pli’, sets the tone for this new work. The work gives voice to the thoughts of a poet wrestling with his human inability to grasp the beauty of the eternal azure.
Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)
- Les offrandes oubliées (1930)
- 1. La Croix (Das Kreuz)
- 2. La Péché (Die Sünde)
- 3. L’Eucharistie (Die Eucharistie)
Pierre Boulez (1925 – 2016)
Le soleil des eaux (1947)
for soprano, choir and orchestra
Robin de Raaff (*1968)
L’Azur (2025)
Cantata for choir and orchestra
on the poem by Stéphane Mallarmé
German premiere
Commissioned by Lucerne Festival 2025 (financed through The Pierre Boulez Foundation) in coproduction and co-financed by the NTR ZaterdagMatinee
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943)
Symphonic Dances op. 45 (1940)
Participating artists
Liv Redpath
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Netherlands Radio Choir
Karina Canellakis
Dates
August 2025
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