Stravinsky and Bartók

Brett Dean’s Amphitheatre is a dramatic scene for a big orchestra. The amphitheatres of antiquity and Ancient Rome came in all shapes and sizes: magnificent and lavish in big cities, simple and understated in smaller towns. It was a reflection of the people and societies who built them. These were places where people could satisfy their hunger for stories and plays. This has been the inspiration for Dean’s dramatic music. The Australian composer was featured at Konserthuset’s 2011 Composer Festival.

In Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, influences from folk music play a central role. While Bartók frequently turned to the wellspring of folk music, this may have reflected a longing for home: he composed the music in exile. His beloved Hungary had become an ally to Nazi Germany, and anti-fascist Bartók saw no other choice but to emigrate to the US. He had difficultly becoming accustomed to his new home, and started to experience symptoms of what would later be diagnosed as leukaemia. In the midst of this darkness, a prestigious commission arose in 1943: the conductor Serge Koussevitzky wanted an orchestral work for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Stravinsky also composed his Symphony in three movements in the US during World War II. The symphony consisted in part of music borrowed from himself – projects that were never completed for various reasons, including movie soundtracks. The Symphony in three movements is music in a Neoclassical style and foretells, for example, the opera The Rake’s Progress. At the same time, the accentuated rhythms are also reminiscent of earlier works, such as the Rite of Spring.

The orchestra is led by Alan Gilbert, Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He is now chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg as well as music director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.