The line from Mozart to Debussy and Ravel is usually straighter than to their German-speaking contemporaries. For all three have something playful in common - a delight in sound that gives pleasure to the ear and yet never remains superficial.
But when things get serious, Mozart grows beyond the player and shows in his great church works that beauty and reverence are not mutually exclusive. His Great Mass in C minor is one of these masterpieces, which have something tragic and at the same time stately about them. This is precisely why Debussy and Ravel - Mozart's brothers in spirit - keep their distance for once on this evening: in "Une barque sur l'océan", Maurice Ravel lets the orchestra glide like a boat on gentle waves, while Claude Debussy's incomparable masterpiece "La Mer" directs your gaze to the glittering golden ocean and impressively proves why we always want to return to the sea.
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker; Christina Landshamer, soprano; Anna Harvey, mezzo-soprano; David Fischer, tenor; Valentin Ruckebier, bass; Chor des Städtischen Musikvereins zu Düsseldorf; Dennis Hansel-Dinar, rehearsal; Vitali Alekseenok, conductor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in C minor KV 427; Maurice Ravel: Une barque sur l'océan; Claude Debussy: La Mer (Source: Tonhalle Düsseldorf)
