Luc Ferrari’s “Histoire du Plaisir et de la Désolation”, completed in 1981, has since lost none of its glowing color, dark power and enormous urgency. It was at the concert musica viva in the Herkulessaal with the BR Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke the main work after the break. This music needs no explanation, you don’t even need to know the titles of the three movements. Because “Harmonie du diable” is such a relentless ostinato from the low brass, but increasingly enriched from different sides, that one is fascinated and frightened at the same time, especially when the music is played with the greatest intensity. Four drummers can’t stop drumming in a trance. The individual groups of the orchestra are captivated in different ways, suddenly blissful islands appear in various quotations (“Plaisir – Désir”), but immediately more and more energetic attacks begin from all corners of the orchestra. So the seductively dangerous game continues until, after a catastrophic collapse, strange, unreal light finally appears at the end of “Ronde de la Désolation”.
Musica Viva concert with the BR Symphony Orchestra in the Hercules Hall. – Munich
