Wednesday 06 October 2021

Due to a strike in the cultural sector from 3 September, this concert unfortunately has to be cancelled. All ticket holders will be contacted.

Edward Gardner, some of Igor Stravinsky's most famous works - the powerful Symphony of Psalms and the once scandalous ballet Spring Sacrifice. In 2021, it will be fifty years since Igor Stravinsky died in New York. He was one of the most important and influential composers of the twentieth century. At this evening's concert, two of his greatest works will be performed, and will begin with two short religious choral works performed by the Edvard Grieg Choir and the Bergen Philharmonic Choir a cappella.

Although Stravinsky was raised within the Russian Orthodox faith, it took a long time before he wrote religious music. Only in 1930, perhaps influenced by guilt for his own deeds, did he compose the Psalm Symphony, a powerful and sacred work for choir and orchestra.

His pioneering Spring Sacrifice created shock waves when the ballet was staged for the first time in Paris in 1913. Both Nijinski's choreography and Stravinsky's music broke with all established norms, and the scandal was a fact when the dancers did not keep the beat. Today, the music is firmly established in the repertoire, still as a fresh and innovative concert piece.

Edward Gardner, conductor
Edvard Grieg Choir
Bergen Philharmonic Choir
Håkon Matti Skrede, choir master
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Program:
Igor Stravinsky:
- Hail Mary,
-Pater Noster,
- The symphony of hymns
-The Spring Sacrifice