Marc Bouchkov, OBC & Ludovic Morlot

After a long creative process, in his Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny),  Johannes Brahms managed to compose a choral and symphonic work conspicuous for its profound solemnity. Brahms accomplishes this through a broad spectrum of orchestral colours and rhythmic contrasts, with long phrases that fade into a conciliatory finale.   

Sofia Gubaidulina is a leading exponent of spirituality in contemporary music. The Lyre of Orpheus, the first part of the triptych Nadeyka, is a particularly memorable work by the composer, written for Gidon Kremer and dedicated to the memory of Gubaidulina’s daughter.

In La Mort d’Ophélie (The Death of Ophelia), one of three pieces for chorus and orchestra from the Tristia cycle, Hector Berlioz set to music Ophelia’s tragic death, from the fourth act of Hamlet, in a musical poem of supreme delicacy. Originally written for voice and piano, it was later orchestrated with great skill by the French composer.
Du fond de l’abîme (From the Bottom of the Abyss), written at the age of just 24 in memory of her father, is a clear masterpiece offering indications of what she might have gone on to write if she had not died the following year.