The music of Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) is as various and surprising as the passions which fired him: travel, medieval music, Bach, Socialism, film stars, stereoscopic photography and Rudyard Kipling, to name but a few. This film, a mixture of fact and fantasy, shows the figure of the composer wandering through an imaginary house in which each room reveals a new facet of his many loves.
Simon Rattle conducts Poulenc, Koechlin, Kurtág and Ravel
What all the works in this concert have in common is an unmistakable French freedom of form and sound, whether in Poulenc’s twelve-part vocal work or the large-scale but always transparent, almost pointillist orchestral compositions. There are no rules to be followed, but rather a freedom of expression that only results from the “uncertainty of the moment”. The critics are delighted: “an arresting evening” (Financal Times) PROGRAM Francis Poulenc: Figure humaine; Charles Koechlin: Les Bandar-log; György Kurtág: Petite Musique solennelle en hommage à Pierre Boulez 90; Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé