The night of 20 February will begin with the mighty sound of Beethoven’s Symphony in A Major, once nicknamed by Wagner an apotheosis of dance, as vivacious rhythms reappear throughout this work. Our attention is gripped by the mega-famous Allegretto – with its maestoso, ostinato theme, passed on to the individual orchestra sections in a blood-thickening sequence. Beethoven himself doted on the finale which was like wine pouring the Bacchus’s craze into our veins. The vocal-instrumental compositions by Stravinsky provide a contrast to the classical symphony. 

Collegium Vocale Gent under Philippe Herreweghe joins the NFM Symphony Orchestra.    The Belgian artists are stars of historical performance; known mostly thanks to their masterful interpretations of Baroque repertoire. A question arises why a 20th-century composer is included in this programme.  Both the Symphony of Psalms dated 1930 and the Mass dated 1948 are bound up with Stravinsky’s conversion to Orthodox Christianity. The key part is played by the religious texts, delivered through simple and intelligible means of expression, without Romantic affectations. Collegium Vocale Gent is an ensemble which rose to fame thanks to the way of singing focused on the meaning of words. Therefore their interpretations of Biblical texts and the Mass sections are certainly worth our attention.   Stravinsky’s music with its wealth of sounds inspired by modal scales and ecclesiastic polyphony as well as ethereal reminiscences of his childhood in Sankt Petersburg is worth delving into, an echo of Orthodox Church hymns vibrating in the air full of incense flavours.