Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava has in its repertoire pieces of contemporary music as well, especially Czech contemporary music, for example, the works of the young composer Soňa Vetchá. The focus of her interest are acoustic illusions. Orchestral series of psychoacoustic studies “Cuts, Switches, Clouds…” from the year 2020 was inspired precisely by these illusions. In the chosen part “The Cuts” we will dive into a musical landscape filled with sudden or gradual music cuts which are conditioned by “probable improbability” of our subjective perception.
Nearly a hundred years earlier (1903), Maurice Ravel composed his Sheherezade, inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov’s composition of the same name, which will be played right after Ravel’s composition. With French charm and ease, Ravel inspires our imagination and through his intoxicating music, we will find ourselves in the Orient swarming with cunning merchants, viziers, silk turbans, potbellied mandarins, princesses and scholars.
Korsakov, a naval officer and traveler, dedicated much of his work to motifs of fairy tales and legends. His Sheherezade came into being in the year 1888, inspired by the well-known collection of fairy tales One Thousand and One Nights, and not even the author himself could have anticipated that it would be this suite that would bring him worldwide fame in the future. It is honestly no wonder. The composition has remarkable instrumentation, enchanting orchestral colors, fresh and spicy melodies, oriental elements, and rhythmic vitality.
