This concert presents a selection of works spanning some eight decades of French music. The earliest piece is the solo cantata La mort de Cléopâtre, written by a young Hector Berlioz to verse by Pierre-Ange Vieillard in 1829, around the same time as his Symphonie fantastique. The composer described the work as a "lyrical scene”, and it would eventually earn him the long-desired Prix de Rome.
The other works in the concert are all products of a short period in music history. Gabriel Fauré ...composed incidental music for the 1898 London première of Maurice Maeterlinck's drama Pelléas et Mélisande. The importance of Maeterlinck's work for contemporaries is clearly demonstrated by the fact that it also inspired works by Schoenberg and Sibelius in ensuing years, while Debussy used it as the basis for an opera. Fauré later derived a four-movement suite from the incidental music for concert hall performance.
In an Autobiographical Sketch, Maurice Ravel wrote: "The title Valses nobles et sentimentales clearly indicates my intention to compose a series of waltzes following the example of Schubert […] The Valses […] were first performed amid protestations and catcalls at a concert […] in which the names of the composers were not revealed. The audience voted on the probable authorship of each piece. Mine was recognised, but only by a slight majority.' The date of the concert in question was 9 May 1911, the location Paris. An orchestral version was published a year later in 1912.
Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra
Parking information
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