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· Published on August 6, 2018 at 01:55 p.m.
Philharmonie de Paris set in La Villette park welcomes the Boston Symphony Orchestra for three exceptional concerts. Meet this September on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16.
Symphonic music lovers save the date!
Philharmonie de Paris invites one of the world’s greatest symphonic orchestra for September 2018: the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The latter is famous for the quality of its strings (violinists, cellists, violists, bass players…).
This September, three exclusive dates are scheduled in Philharmonie de Paris and the Cité de la Musique venues:
- Saturday September 15, 2018 at 8:30 p.m.: Gustav Mahler, Symphony No.3
Grande Salle Pierre Boulez
Boston Symphony Orchestra and Radio France women choir (conductor Andris Nelsons, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham)
“For Mahler, it’s about the appearance of life in the inanimate creation. He tells his friend Natalie Bauer-Lechner: ‘It’s almost not music anymore, so to speak it’s the sound of Nature. It gives the thrills to see how life progressively pulls itself out of inanimate and fossilized matter until it differs step by step into always more sophisticated shapes of the evolution: flowers, animals, men until the realm of spirits, to the ‘angels’.’ With this vision of evolution, intertwines a music reflection around Nietzschean thought. Not only does Mahler plans in a first time to call his symphony “Le Gai Savoir” [The Gay Science] but in the fourth movement, he has a mezzo sing Also sprach Zarathustra – as if he wanted to show the men arrive on earth – followed by an abstract of Des Knaben Wunderhorn to tell about the ‘angels’”.
- Sunday September 16 at 4:30 p.m.: Leonard Bernstein, Serenade for solo violin, strings and percussion and Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No.4
Grande Salle Pierre Boulez
Boston Symphony Orchestra (conductor Andris Nelsons, Violin Baiba Skride)
“On one hand, a fabulous and ethereal song of a luminous unparalleled grace, like a celebration of love inspired by Plato’s Symposium – including the germ that will make the genius of West Side Story. On the other hand, a knockout work, full of ardor and enthusiasm at first sight, but after a short and illusory break, closes on one of the darkest pages of this composer yet known for his keen sense of drama. It’s undoubtedly this last moment, of a dark pessimism that explains the frustrated destiny of this Fourth: harshly reviewed along his composition in 1934-1936, the work has been censored by a Stalinian regime determined to enforce an optimistic vision of the world. It’s only 25 years later that it will come out of the closet to finally meet its public.”
- Sunday September 16 at 3 p.m.: Maurice Ravel, Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet, Walter Piston, Sonata for Flute and Piano, Igor Stravinsky, Three Pieces for clarinet, Tōru Takemitsu Toward the Sea Ill for alto flute and harp, Thomas Adès, Catch for piano, violin, clarinet and cello
Cité de la Musique Amphithéâtre
Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians, Paris Orchestra musicians and intercontemporary ensemble
“The Boston Symphony Orchestra has always been attached to defend the French repertoire especially during the management of its music director Charles Munch as well as Seiji Ozawa’s – that reminds us of the third version of Toward The Sea by Japanese composer Takemitsu, a work remining of Debussy with its changeable finesse and its dreamy tone. To the delicious effervescence of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro answers the healthy vitality of the Sonata for Flute and Piano by Piston – composer who created many works in Boston. The Three Pieces for clarinet by Stravinsky bring to this program a spicy note and Adès’ Catch, by its surprising interactions between the four musicians, a playful touch.”
Picture: Andris Nelsons © Marco Borggreve
