Roots festival: Firebird
Ryan Bancroft conductor
Tuuli Lindeberg vocals
Toru Takemitsu How Slow the Wind for orchestra
Maurice Ravel Two Hebrew Melodies
Kaija Saariaho Leino Songs
Intermission
Igor Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1945 version)
Music is, without a doubt, a universal language, and through it, the people of the world can express themselves and understand one another. Takemitsu found a connection between the strictly defined Japanese culture and French impressionism. In many of his songs, Ravel was interested in non-Western musical cultures. His two Hebrew melodies do not seek authenticity, but rather the magic of an ancient culture. In the same way, Kaija Saariaho’s Leino Songs explore the Finnish artistic pursuit of beauty and harmony dating back over a century. In The Firebird, Stravinsky immersed himself in the world of Russian fairy tales and found there the seed of modernism.
