Rachmaninoff’s Red Riding Hood meets Franck’s violin sonata in a musical melange of legend and lyricism.

We open with Henryk Wieniawski’s Légende: a solo work full of passion and fireworks. A virtuoso of the violin, Wieniawski showcases its technical possibilities, setting the tone for a program inspired by legend and lore.

Debussy’s The Sunken Cathedral for solo piano was inspired by the Breton myth of the underwater cathedral off the coast of the Island of Ys. Only visible when the weather was clear, it rises here at the composer’s instruction until the music swells to fortissimo.

Rachmaninoff’s Études-Tableaux push the pianist to legendary feats of virtuosity. The folk heroine Little Red Riding Hood dances her way into one of these ‘picture studies’ – and meets the growling wolf in the piano’s low register.

We close with Cesar Franck’s Sonata in A Major: a chamber music favourite bursting with lyricism and playful spontaneity.

Artists
CSO Chamber Ensemble

Repertoire
HENRYK WIENIAWSKI Légende, Op. 17
CLAUDE DEBUSSY La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Etudes-tableaux, Op. 39: ‘The Sea and the Seagulls’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’
CÉSAR FRANCK Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano