Good start

Great concert yesterday! Thanks for all. And thanks especially for Gabriel. I think it would be very difficult to find a singer more suitable for those stunning monologues by Frank Martin. There is something very special in these songs and I don´t think you have to be a religious listener at all to realise that there is a huge amount of hope behind this music and the beautiful text by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Martin´s music should be played more. Maybe in the future we´ll programme Polypyque or even Le Vin Herbé.

I suppose finishing the concert with the Poeme de l´Extase took us as far from Martin´s protestant world as possible. It´s a less complex piece than most people think but it´s certainly true that the huge amount of short themes make the symphonic development impossible and balancing difficult. I´ve tried to read the composers chaotic verses which he wrote to serve as some kind of an explanation of the piece but found the score much more informative. In Scriabin´s (and Wagners´s) case the music itself creates more profound and genuine feelings than the text on which it´s based on.

I was reminded this week that Beethoven was my age whan he composed his 7th symphony. For some reason I found that information spooky.

This weekend is dedicated for some rest and four scores by Jonathat Harvey. It´s been many years since I´ve conducted anything with this much electronics. Harvey is an interesting composer and studying his scores has been quite a journey. I´m looking forward to the first rehearsals with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris on Tuesday.