EXPERIMENTAL. DELUSION. VENICE.

Stravinsky cherished a special relationship with the lagoon city of Venice. It is the city where Diaghilev, the inspiration for a number of Stravinsky’s works, is buried. And it is also here that his opera ‘The Rake’s Progress’ was premiered, and where Stravinsky himself is buried in accordance with his last wish. He dedicated one of his greatest works of sacred music to the city and its patron saint. Also, Stravinsky conducted the premiere of this work in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The music of ‘Canticum Sacrum’ has many connections with the late Renaissance and early Baroque Venetian tradition of church music, and, interestingly, it is also connected with the most modern musical experiments of the 1950s.

Program:
Bach: Lobet den Herrn, BWV. 230. – motet
Stravinsky: Canticum sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci nominis
Bach: Singet dem Herrn, BWV. 225. – motet
Stravinsky: Mass
Bach-Stravinsky: Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her – chorale variations

Conductor:
Mihály Zeke 

Photo credit: Gergely Máté Oláh 

Artists:
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir
István Horváth (tenor), Zsolt Haja (bariton)