Late sixteenth-century Florence was a theatre: first and foremost a political one, in the eyes of the dynasties that wished to use the arts to display their power. A humanist one too, as is shown by these intermedi (interludes) that sought to achieve the perfect blend between music and poetry. Inserted into plays these entertainments were presented with lavish visual and musical resources. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Baragli’s La Pellegrina, this tradition was prolonged in the burgeoning genre of opera by such composers as Peri, Caccini, and, very soon, Monteverdi and Gagliano. Rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphae¨l Pichon has devised a sort of imaginary intermedio by selecting the nest gems from this repertory, featuring the gures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid: Love, Love, Love!
Il viaggio – A musical journey through Italian Renaissance
Vincent Dumestre and his ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique take us on a musical journey through the music of the Italian Renaissance to the beautiful Palazzo Farnese in Rome. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the baroque ensemble together with French mezzo-soprano Eva Zaicik pays homage to the unique musicality and sensitivity of Bellerofonte Castaldi and his contemporaries Monteverdi and Frescobaldi, as well as Rossi, Buonamente and Uccellini.
Quinte & Sens: Symphony of the Elements
This film by François-René Martin & Gordon combines breathtakingly beautiful images with the magnificent sound of the Orchestre de Paris. It creates a new Symphony representing the four Classical Elements: Fire (Stravinsky’s “Firebird”), Earth (Adoration of the Earth in Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”), Water (Debussy’s “La Mer”), Air (Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea in “La Mer”). As a fifth element it adds Olivier Messiaen’s “L’Appel interstellaire” (Interstellar call) from “Des Canyons aux Étoiles” (From the canyons to the stars). The word Quintessence was originally the Latin expression for the fifth element (quinta essentia, literally “fifth being”). According to Aristoteles, there was aether as massless, unchangeable, eternal substance beyond the lunar sphere. This “fifth element” thus had completely different properties than the earthly ones. Filmed inside and outside the stunning Philharmonie de Paris in true Hollywood style this is a new milestone in the creative visualization of music. A fascinating feast for the eyes and ears.
Raphaël Pichon conducts Handel & Bach
Bach and Handel, opera and oratorio, and extreme affects such as frenzy and deep suffering – Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion at the Philharmonie de Paris. The phenomenal French coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe makes the colorful program shine as a vivid Baroque panorama. PROGRAM Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno: “Un pensiero nemico di pace”, Giulio Cesare in Egitto: “Che sento? O dio!…Se pietà”; Bach: Cantatas: Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, BWV 146: Sinfonia, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, “Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe”, BWV 156: Sinfonia, “Geist und Seele wird verwirret”, BWV 35: Concerto, “Ich habe genug”, BWV 82 (excerpts)
Christophe Rousset conducts Rameau
“Under the baton of Christophe Rousset, everything is perfectly executed, weighed, clean, the gestures are soft, everything is bathed in a precise but gentle delicacy” (forumopera.com) A true spearhead of French music, Jean-Philippe Rameau has always accompanied the Talens Lyriques and has quickly become an emblematic figure in their history. This is why they wanted to celebrate their 30th anniversary at the Châtelet with a programme dedicated to him. And what better work to do so than Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talens Lyriques? With Ambroisine Bré, Cyrille Dubois and Florian Sempey, they perform large excerpts from this opera-ballet composed in 1739 as well as from the lyrical tragedy Dardanus. PROGRAM Rameau: Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talens Lyriques? (extracts), Dardanus (extracts)
Gardiner conducts Berlioz and Elgar
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France joins forces with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and violist Antoine Tamestit for a concert featuring Italy and putting two composers in the spotlight: Hector Berlioz and Edward Elgar. With Harolde en Italie, Hector Berlioz invokes transalpine landscapes. Shaped by the period when the composer was resident at the Villa Medici, this symphony in four parts gives pride of place to the viola, played here by Antoine Tamestit – “one of the two or three greatest current performers” (Diapason). In the South (Alassio), composed between 1903 and 1904 by Edward Elgar, is still about Italy, pastoral atmosphere and Byronic colours. Brilliantly complex, this work, written in record time, is one of the peaks of romantic music. Let us travel a little deeper into Edward Elgar’s melancholy with his Sospiri. This adagio for strings composed at the dawn of the First World War is captivating in its romanticism and passion.
Donizetti: Messa da Requiem
From the Basilique de Saint Denis, the burial place of the French Kings since centuries and at the same time one of the first gothic churches in the world, comes the first ever audiovisual recording of a long lost masterpiece of Italian sacred music, full of romance and belcanto: Gaetano Donizetti’s luminous Messa da Requiem. The highly virtuosic and lyrical score, expressing the Christian vision of the passage from death to eternal life, combines the imposing polyphony of a choir with the operatic brilliance of soloist arias. The Argentine conductor Leonardo García Alarcón conducts his Orchestre Millenium, an orchestra dedicated to bring ancient music to a new generation, with “precise gestures and rich contrast” while the Choeur de Chambre de Namur impresses with “clarity and power” (Forum Opera).
BR: Mariss Jansons conducts Mahler & Rachmaninov
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its musical director Mariss Jansons gives ist debut at the Philharmonie de Paris: With Vladimír Sommer’s Antigone, Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, the evening’s programme revolves around the subjects of death, transcendence and the afterlife. Renowned alto and Mahler expert Gerhild Romberger makes Mahler’s ballads a “special and flawless experience” (Wiener Zeitung). The praised Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra shines “bright under their chief conductor Mariss Jansons. Impressive.” (Kurier) PROGRAM Mahler: Kindertotenlieder; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances; Sommer: Antigone
Quatuor Diotima – Bela Bartók’s Complete String Quartets
At the atmospheric venue of the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, the “brilliant ensemble” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) of the Quatuor Diotima meet the challenge of performing the entire cycle of Béla Bartók’s string quartets. Founded in 1996 by laureates of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the Diotima Quartet has become one of the world’s most in-demand ensembles. Bartók’s six string quartets, written between 1908 and 1939, are the shortest summaries of his compositional thinking. Limited to four voices and a restricted supply of tonal colours – of which Bartók makes full use – they are of enormous richness and density, which turns every listening into a voyage of iscovery. “The Diotima Quartet performs Bartók’s demanding chamber music with promising commitment, captivating inner activity, depth, poetic finesse and precision.” (Classiquenews)
Ensemble Intercontemporain – Celestial Mechanics
In the year of its 40th anniversary, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, famous for its performances of 20th and 21st century music, presented five very special programmes at the Cité de la Musique and the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris, each one of them dealing with its own particular subject. The single works performed in the 5 concerts are available as 23 individual films. Celestial Mechanics brings together the works of the basque composer Ramon Lazkano and his german colleague Matthias Pintscher, who, as different as their musical style may be, share the penchant of getting inspired by nature, the sky, the wind, and the evanescence of all living things.