Jakub Hrůša and presents Songs of Love and Farewell Death with the CSO — look at the thoughtful program:
Janáček Overture to From the House of the Dead
Rachmaninov The Isle of the Dead
R. Strauss Four Last Songs, with soprano Corinne Winters
Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde (Orchestral version)
It is a very spiritual experience. My friend says “I feel like I’m floating and entering an ethereal state, and the music just ends there”.
It is good performance after all. Though the Rachmaninoff is a little bit light, not dark enough. Jakub picked a very andante tempo and I feel like the “water” — where the bases playing the 5/4 quarter notes mimicing the waves of the sea — is just too lightly textured — ideally I’d prefer something darker, denser:
Jakub balanced well and Corinne Winters performed the Strauss beautifullllly.
Jakub will come back to Chicago again next season to to do Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7. I look forward to it — though as he is now the musical director of the Royal Opera, can we do some Ballet suites at some point — Prokofiev?