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Respighi visits the Trevi Fountains at midday:
Liszt – who was, apparently, a regular visitor at the Villa d’Este – does the astonishing feat of liquifying the piano:
More fountains and gushes of notes by Ravel:
Szymanowski, with a little help from Ovid, transforms the nymph Arethusa:
The three myths, a complete performance
Debussy in deeply reflective mood; helping us forget that the instrument has hammers:
More from Ovid; this time it’s Britten, who translates Narcissus from boy to flower:
I. Pan – 0:00
II. Phaeton – 1:50
III. Niobe – 3:22
IV. Bacchus – 5:19
V. Narcissus – 7:45
VI. Arethusa – 10:37
… more Britten – in collaboration with Tennyson – painting a Sublime landscape of castles, mountains, lakes and cataracts:
II. Nocturne: text
all of the Serenade for tenor, horn & strings
A love song by Messiaen: Le lac comme un gros bijou bleu…
II. Paysage: text & translation
Poèmes pour Mi, the whole cycle
Two lakes of tears. Tchaikovsky, from Swan Lake…
Fonteyn & Nureyev: Swan Lake complete
… and Bartók, from Bluebeard’s Castle:
Bluebeard’s Castle in its entirety
… and finally, Lyadov‘s enchanting Enchanted Lake:
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Very evocative. Good to get a glimpse through the sixth door of Bluebeard’s Castle, an opera due to be performed last year by the WNO, but postponed (I hope postponed rather than abandoned) because of the pandemic. Tears indeed.