Elements unfolds as a continuous musical journey in which earth, water, air, and fire continually change form. Rather than forming four separate chapters, they return throughout the program in different combinations. Each work has its own elemental character, yet none belongs entirely to a single category. The elements meet through rhythm, color, weight, and motion.

The program begins in the vivid world of Rachmaninoff’s fair, before moving towards the sea and the rocking motion of a barcarolle. Lourié’s Formes en l’air introduces a more abstract, weightless space, while Debussy and Ravel move between flashes of light, nocturnal flight, ocean swell, and violent wind. Fire comes to the foreground in both Scriabin’s Vers la flamme and Rautavaara’s The Fire Sermon. In Rautavaara, however, the other elements also return, and all four seem to converge in the final work.

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Repertoire:

• Rachmaninoff — Étude-tableau in E-flat major, Op. 33 No. 4, “The Fair”
• Rachmaninoff — Étude-tableau in A minor, Op. 39 No. 2, “The Sea and the Seagulls”
• Rachmaninoff — Barcarolle, Op. 10 No. 3
• Lourié — Formes en l’air
• Debussy — Poissons d’or
• Ravel — Noctuelles
• Scriabin — Vers la flamme, Op. 72
• Ravel — Une barque sur l’océan
• Debussy — Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest
• Rautavaara — Piano Sonata No. 2, The Fire Sermon