大象传媒

Principal Conductor Thierry Fischer is currently enjoying his final season with the 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales. This afternoon Louise Fryer presents a selection of his most recent recordings.

In 2009 Thierry Fischer opened the orchestra's state-of-the-art new home, 大象传媒 Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, with the exciting young Latvian violinist Baiba Skride. Two years later they teamed up again to record a new CD for Orfeo. Today we'll hear two concertos from this soon-to-be-released disc. Stravinsky's neo-classical Violin Concerto is a bright kaleidoscope of music, full of daring contrasts - and notoriously difficult to play. In 1951, twenty years after Stravinsky, Thierry Fischer's Swiss compatriot Frank Martin wrote his Violin Concerto, and like Stravinsky, he owed a great debt to Bach and the music of the Baroque. The solo line is consistently lyrical with long soaring lines, yet Martin doesn't relegate the orchestra to a role of mere accompaniment, he scores in bright and bold colours.

Thierry Fischer has a particular enthusiasm for French music from the twentieth century. Today's programme includes his recording of Myst猫re de l'instant by the Henri Dutilleux, who visited the orchestra four years ago (at the age of 92) for a festival in his honour in Cardiff. Like the Martin Violin Concerto, Myst猫re de l'instant was commissioned by the Swiss impresario Paul Sacher, and it describes an experience which amazed Dutilleux one evening at his country house by the river Loire. He was suddenly overwhelmed by birdsong, hundreds of different distinct voices, each with its own individual character. In recreating the mystery of that moment, Dutilleux uses an orchestra of 24 solo strings, together with percussion and a cimbalom.

Charles Marie Widor may be best known for his organ music and in particular a famous toccata, but he was also the composer of songs, ballets, symphonies and concertos. Thierry Fischer's recent Hyperion CD of works for piano and orchestra aims to put Widor in a wider context. The Second Piano Concerto, which lanuches today's programme, dates from 1905, when the composer was 60, but sounds remarkably modern. Adventurous harmonies combine with technically demanding solo writing that bears a closer comparison to Rachmaninov than to Saint-Saens.

And the 大象传媒 NOW's biggest piece this afternoon is a highlight from last season at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, a heartfelt account of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. A powerful and personal statement, this symphony was a "make or break" work for Shostakovich after the authorities denounced his Fourth Symphony as "chaos instead of music". This performance clearly demonstrates Thierry Fischer's natural ability to control the drama of the work and reveal the detail in Shostakovich's blazing score.