Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

LSO - Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete and Oedipus Rex

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, the Monteverdi Choir and soloists in Stravinsky's Apollon musagete and his opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

In a special concert for his 70th birthday, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts two works by Stravinsky on ancient Greek subjects. The ballet Apollon musagète (Apollo, Leader of the Muses) focuses on Apollo's role as the patron of music and poetry, and is written in an elegant and restrained neo-Classical style. Sergei Diaghilev, enamoured by the score's classical beauty, described it as 'music not of this world, but from somewhere above'. Oedipus Rex, based on Sophocles' tragedy, is an extremely powerful and original work for the theatre or concert hall, but Stravinsky by contrast, described it as an assemblage of 'whatever came to hand', from the sounds of Baroque oratorio and Italian opera to Wagner's music dramas.

Stravinsky: Apollon musagete

8.05pm: Interval - Interval music

8.25pm: Part 2

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano...Jocaste)
Stuart Skelton (tenor...Oedipus)
Gidon Saks (bass-baritone...Creon)
Fanny Ardant (Narrator)
Gentlemen of the Monteverdi Choir
London Symphony Orchestra
conductor John Eliot Gardiner.

2 hours, 30 minutes

Music Played

  • LSO/John Eliot Gardiner

    • Igor Stravinsky

      Apollo - ballet in 2 scenes for string orchestra vers. rev. 1947

      Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner Performer: London S O.

    • Igor Stravinsky

      Oedipus rex - opera-oratorio in 2 acts

      Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner Performer: Fanny Ardant Performer: Gidon Saks Performer: Jennifer Johnston Performer: Stuart Skelton Performer: London S O. Performer: Monteverdi Choir.

Broadcast

  • Thu 25 Apr 2013 19:30

New Music on Radio 3

New Music on Radio 3

A chance to listen to recent broadcasts of new music - including premieres - on Radio 3.