From the Royal Festival Hall, London, the first concert in the on-going annual series which concentrates each year on a specific decade of music. The sixties is the chosen decade for 1997.
Juliane Banse (soprano),
Deborah Miles-Johnson (mezzo), David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Franz Mazura (narrator), BBC Singers, City of Birmingham
Symphony Chorus, Youth Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Simon Rattle
Stravinsky Requiem Canticles
Henze The Raft of the Medusa (1st part)
8.25 The Raft of the Medusa
Henze based his oratorio on the same story as Gericault's famous painting - the wrecking of the French flagship Medusa during the Napoleonic Wars. Gericault painted his vivid and realistic picture while the story was still topical. Why was this wreck such a source of inspiration to him? And why is it still significant today?
8.45 Henze The Raft of the Medusa
(2nd part)