A mosaic of virtuosity and eroticism

‘I always want to write erotic music… Not only about the love between men and women, but in a much more universal sense, about the sensuality of the mechanism of the universe… about life.’ This credo of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu not only applies to the sensual sound of his short, subdued 1957 work Requiem for Strings, but could also serve as a motto for the other works in this concert. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fifth Piano Concerto, ‘L’Égyptien’, composed in Luxor in 1896, incorporates the sensuality of oriental melodies into a playful and virtuoso Western concerto, while in the grand panorama of his Sinfonietta (1925), Janáček ranges from the martial and playful to the more intimate and sensual aspects of life. Together with the American pianist Nicholas Angelich, our resident conductor Alain Altinoglu evokes the entire spectrum of human feelings in this programme of virtuoso performances.

PROGRAMME

• Toru Takemitsu Requiem for string orchestra (1957)
• Camille Saint-Saëns Concerto pour piano No.5, ‘L’Égyptien’
• Leoš Janáček Sinfonietta