SILK and THORN

This evening is a musical tale about the rift between the transience of dreams and the harsh truth of life. The works of Maurice Ravel and Karol Szymanowski meet at a point where the highest artistry of form becomes a fragile shield for naked emotions.

The concert opens with a silk mirage of the Orient. In a selected repertoire from the cycles Song of a Mad Muezin and Song of a Princess from a Fairy Tale, Szymanowski draws a world full of sensual fervor and metaphysics, complemented by the ecstatic Song of Roxana. Ravel responds to this aura with dreamlike poems from the cycle Shéhérazade (Enchanted Flute, Indifferent), which are the quintessence of French Impressionism.

At the heart of the show we face a tragic dreamer — Don Quixote. Ravel's last cycle, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, is a moving buckle between prayer and bitter rebellion — here the silk of dreams meets the thorn of reality.

The finale of the evening is a return to raw roots. After the bright colours chosen from Ravel's Five Folk Greek Melodies, we are immersed in Polish soil. In Kurpiowski's Songs, Szymanowski gets to the core of human suffering. The narrative ends with a poignant youthful song to the words of Kazimierz Przerwy-Tetmajer The whole world is far away — it brings the final silence and resignation of someone who leaves the hustle and bustle of the world to be alone with his own soul.