Musical Transformations
In our final concert of the season, taking place as we transform into Summer, the de Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra explores ‘Musical Transformations’.
- Rachmaninov – Isle of the Dead
- Saint Saens – Danse Macabre
- Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
- Strauss – Death and Transfiguration
We celebrate the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninov’s birth in 1873 with a performance of The Isle of the Dead. This beautiful piece is musical interpretation of the painting by Arnold Böcklin, thought to be the transformation of souls as they cross the River Styx to the afterlife.
Saint Saens’ Danse Macabre and Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bald Mountain both depict nightly transformations in music as spirits come out to dance and then recede at the approach of dawn. Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration closes the concert with one of his tone poems and a sumptuous musical portrayal of the death of an artist and his ultimate transformation through the heavenly reaches of transfiguration.