The Firebird: Orchestre National d'Ile de France

About the Event

Conducted by Enrique Mazzola, Austrian baritone Markus Werba and the Orchestre National d'Ile de France perform selected works by Mozart, Stravinsky, and Mahler at Salle Pleyel in Paris.

The bird represents the music of nature with its clear and repeated singing, which can even be translated into notes, quoted in scores.
In Songs of a Wayfarer, stylized birdsongs appear when the text speaks of poetic nature and nostalgic forests.

For Mahler, however, the bird is the symbol of the elevation. 'I try,' he wrote to his wife Alma, 'to snatch from the jaws of banality what characterizes the positive and productive side of things, which I often distinguish from above, as a flying bird…'

In his Magic Flute, Mozart dressed up Papageno as a bird, ostensibly to make the audience laugh, but also to show that this character owned one of the most difficult treasures to obtain : natural joy.

For Stravinsky, finally, the bird is a magical being. His Firebird is wonderful, 'all gold and flames,' elusive, guiding the hero to the kingdom of immortality, and saving him of evil beings at the end. His music is at the height of this magic: sparkling, dazzling, fascinating…