Samy Moussa & Polish influences

Sergej Prokofjev - Scythian Suite (Ala and Lolly) op.20, Samy Moussa - Ahania's Lament, Karol Szymanowski - Penthesilea op.18, Witold Lutosławski - Concert for Orchestra. Programme Sergej Prokofjev Scythian Suite (Ala and Lolly) op.20 Samy Moussa Ahania's Lament Karol Szymanowski Penthesilea op.18 Witold Lutosławski Concert for Orchestra The Canadian composer and conductor Samy Moussa, composer in residence of the ZaterdagMatinee this season, conducts his own work, alongside Prokofjev and two Polish composers. The mythical figure Ahania Samy Moussa leads the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in a programme around Polish influences and with his own work. Between Prokofjev's Scythian suite, Szymanowski and Lutoslawski sounds the Dutch premiere of Moussa's Ahania's Lament, with Aphrodite Patoulidou as soloist. This Greek soprano is an 'NXT GEN artist', who convinces in repertoire from Mahler to metal and Vivier to folk. William Blake's mythical figure Ahania receives no anecdotal colouring in Moussa's work, but a ritual voice: the soprano is less a psychological character than a mouthpiece of a collective lamentation. Brilliant textures The orchestra forms a space here in which the voice finds its place: undulating, often brilliant textures that show kinship with the Polish orchestral tradition, but take on distinctly contemporary contours. In the context of Szymanowski and Lutoslawski, it becomes audible how Moussa manages to maintain the continuity of an orchestral sound and put it under tension.