| Sunday 13 June 2021 | 19:00 |
| Varèse, Edgard (1883-1965) | Ecuatorial, for bass voice and ensemble | |
| Ravel, Maurice (1875-1937) | Piano Concerto in G major | |
| Berlioz, Hector (1803-1869) | Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie, Op.14bis |
| Alice Sara Ott | Piano |
| London Symphony Chorus | |
| Simon Halsey | Choirmaster / chorus director |
| London Symphony Orchestra | |
| François-Xavier Roth | Conductor |
Ravel does jazz, Varèse fuses Mayan rituals with 1930s electronica, and Hector Berlioz goes completely off the rails, in this very French extravaganza from François-Xavier Roth.
‘Oh! How can I find her? To intoxicate myself with the anguish and joy that is true love!’ Lélio is a lover, a dreamer – and a composer. And if you think his name sounds a bit like Berlioz: well, we don’t want to give too many spoilers for Lélio or The Return to Life.
But it’s safe to say that any concert that begins with the primal ritual of Varèse’s Ecuatorial – and includes the remarkable Alice Sara Ott in Ravel’s elegant, jazz-infused Concerto in G – isn’t afraid of extremes. And that Berlioz’s crazy one-man music drama, written at the height of an unrequited love affair, is a delirious odyssey through the Romantic imagination, told in some of his most flamboyantly original music. You’ve never heard anything quite like it.
