A world in turmoil – and with it, the music, from Debussy to Ethel Smyth to Stravinsky.
No other period in history has seen so much upheaval and disruption in just a few years. From the beginning of the 20th century up to World War I, the world saw a dizzying amount of change. Boundaries pushed in society, science and culture – and many composers acting as seismographs and catalysts at the same time. The eruption of creativity is to do with the freeing of emotions; just as the title Flames also means the war. It also didn’t silence the music, and it is not the only answer to the question of what sort of Europe it was and what moved its people. Flames looks at the lives of two very different protagonists, leading us through private and political drama into the soundtrack of these years. There is Claude Debussy, who created a new form of music language in France, and there is the British composer Ethel Smyth, who not only composed music but also went to prison for fighting for women’s rights; she loved the activist Emmeline Pankhurst and was at home in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. While following their stories, we encounter geniuses like Schönberg and Strauss, and we follow Mahler to Sigmund Freud and Debussy to Stravinsky. When these two played the still incomplete piece Sacre on the piano together, the audience felt like we all feel when we reflect on this time: “We were bowled over as if by a hurricane.”
