NCH, Dublin Tonight 8pm 10-35 01-4170000
It’s all eyes on Germany at the RTÉ NSO’s subscription concert under Alan Buribayev on Friday. More specifically it’s all eyes on Wagner and Brahms, although one of the pieces is actually by an American composer, Christopher Rouse.
Rouse was intrigued by the fact that the fate of the dwarf Alberich in Wagner’s Ring der Nibelungen remains unknown at the end,even though it’s all actually about Alberich’s ring and the consequences of the curse he placed on it.
Rouse got to wondering about what might have happened to Alberich afterwards, and the result was his Der gerettete Alberich (Alberich Saved). Although the piece is for percussion solo and orchestra, Rouse says that it's not so much a concerto as "a fantasy for solo percussionist and orchestra on themes of Wagner, with the soloist taking on the 'role' of Alberich".
Friday's Alberich is the world's best-known solo percussionist, Evelyn Glennie (pictured), for whom Rouse wrote the piece in 1997. The NSO's programme frames it with more Wagner (Siegfried's
Funeral March) and Brahms's
First Symphony.
