Wiener Philharmoniker / Mäkelä

It begins with a dreamy afternoon, through which a tender faun flits, and ends with a wild pagan ritual in which a young woman is sacrificed: the concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä, offers a wide range of moods. The programme opens with Claude Debussy’s impressionist »Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune« from the late 19th century, whilst the second half features Igor Stravinsky’s »*The Rite of Spring*«, which caused one of the greatest scandals in musical history when it premiered in May 1913, but which, with its energetic force, has since established itself as one of the most popular classics of modern music. As with »The Rite«, in Thomas Adès’s grandly orchestrated symphony »Asyla«, repetitive motifs form a crucial compositional element. In the third movement »Ecstasio«, one even feels at times as though one were in an over-the-top techno nightclub.