Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Sir Simon Rattle

Rattle and the BRSO do the same with Hamburg’s Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Chor, which has an unusual role: entirely without lyrics, Ravel, an unrivalled master of instrumentation, uses the human voice simply as tone colour here. This further intensifies the overwhelming sensuality of a form of music whose range literally erupts in the face of diverse combinations of sound – an exuberant feast for the ears!

To create a ritual act in notes to honour a deceased friend – that was the occasion Pierre Boulez had for composing »Rituel«. For this, experimenter Boulez split up the traditional orchestra into eight groups of different size, whose configurations range from a soloistic oboe to the big brass ensemble. By being distributed throughout the space, this piece takes a big step into the audience and lets it take part directly in the musical happenings.