La false and other dreams

Lovely with dark edges

Bar Avni, winner of the 2024 Paris La Maestra conducting competition, leads the Radio Philharmonic in the musings of a young Prokofiev. His composition Rêves is mostly lovely, but has dark edges. Less innocent is Ravel's La valse, set in the Vienna of old. It begins fairytale-like, but develops into a fever vision. Many saw in this a parallel to the destruction of old Europe by World War I.

Reality and illusion

The highlight is a new work by Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo. He draws on traditional Chinese music as well as Western avant-garde, rock and jazz for his works. In The butterfly exchange, he explores the boundaries of reality and illusion. The starting point is someone who dreams about a butterfly that dreams it is a human being. Such a fact guarantees rich color and sound effects. And for those for whom that is not enough, Rachmaninoff's highly romantic Third Piano Concerto is also a dream come true.