Ravel and Strauss

Karina Canellakis takes us through a feast of Ravel and Strauss in her debut concert with the LSO, exploring themes of life, the soul and mortality.

Strauss’ most instrumentally demanding score opens the evening – a dark fairy-tale suite from his opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, depicting the trials of love and belonging. Turbulent, yet hauntingly serene, the physical and spirit worlds that are represented collide.

Cédric Tiberghien accompanies the LSO for Ravel’s jazz-flecked Piano Concerto in G Major, famously opening with the sound of a whip-crack. And then, ascend into the afterlife, as Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration relates the story of a dying man reliving his life, from childhood to death. Gradually waltzing towards a masterful burst of power, Ravel’s La Valse closes the night, echoing the changing atmosphere in Europe after World War I.