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. Rothko Chapel is a musical evening dedicated to the visual arts, which contains reflections not only on the Rothko Chapel in Houston, adorned with 14 paintings by Mark Rothko, but also on works by Markus Lüpertz and Anselm Kiefer.
Ensemble Intercontemporain – Flexible Silence
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. In Flexible Silence, performed at the Théâtre de Chaillot, the Ensemble Intercontemporain becomes part of Saburo Teshigawara’s latest creation. The Japanese choreographer combines the works of two leading 20th century composers, Toru Takemitsu and Olivier Messiaen. Dancers and musicians give an approach to this music as “a sculpture which is born on the spot, which keeps moving and disappearing” (S. Teshigawara)
Ensemble Intercontemporain – Genesis
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. Genesis has especially been commissioned on the occasion of the Ensemble’s 40th anniversary. Consisting of seven orders to seven composers, each one based on one day from the biblical genesis, it aims to question the concept of creation in various nuances.
Ensemble Intercontemporain – Grand Soir Stravinsky
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. The Grand Soir Stravinsky is dedicated to the legendary 20th century composer Igor Stravinsky, featuring his burlesque pocket-size opéra-ballet Renard, written in 1916.
Järvi conducts the Brahms Symphonies
With multiple critically-acclaimed symphonic cycles already under their collective belt, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and its artistic director Paavo Järvi follow up their 2009 Beethoven cycle and 2011 Schumann cycle with a Brahms cycle! In concerts at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, they present all of Brahms’s symphonic masterpieces. “A Brahms revelation” The New York Times
“Hommage à Gounod” Gounod Birthday Concert
The Palazzetto Bru Zane joins forces with the Orchestre National de France to present a special concert retracing the composer’s career through rare and little-known pieces: his cantata for the 1837 Prix de Rome (Marie Stuart), the unpublished first version of the Poison Aria from Roméo et Juliette, his opera Cinq-Mars (revived only in 2015), excerpts from his epic sacred oratorio Mors et Vita, and the big female duet from Le Tribut de Zamora, the composer’s last opera. As is appropriate for a tribute, the concert also recalls some of Gounod’s greatest successes, with the Overture to Mireille and the Ballet Music from Faust, which have constantly delighted music lovers for more than a century now. “Bravos for the soloists and orchestra!” (Operawire)
Paavo Järvi conducts Escaich, Widmann & Saint-Saens
The spectacular new Rieger organ of the Philharmonie de Paris is inaugurated with solo, ensemble, and symphonic works starring Paavo Järvi at the rostrum of the Orchestre de Paris and Thierry Escaich, Titular Organist and with that successor of Maurice Duruflé at Paris Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. The new organ with close to 7000 handmade pipes, 15 meters high and 20 meters wide, with 91 stops on four manuals and pedal specially designed for the symphonic repertory, is heard for the first time at this festive performance. PROGRAM Escaich: Organ Improvisation; Widmann: Viola Concerto (World Premiere); Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 “Organ Symphony”
Hengelbrock conducts Bach and Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Thomas Hengelbrock and the Orchestre de Paris teamed up to perform one of the most brilliant works of European church music: J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. This opus is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat, which is one of the most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn, frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. Following this, the musicians draw the attention of the audience to the content and structural parallels between Bach and Felix Mendelssohn, who has rendered outstanding services to the revivification of the interest in music of J.S. Bach. The musicians delight the audience with the Psalm 42 and the Christmas Cantata, two compositions full of religious fervor.
Paris: Harding conducts Berg and Mahler
It was the death of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius, which spurred Alban Berg to compose his violin concerto Dem Andenken eines Engels (To the Memory of an Angel). This concerto is played by multiple awarded German violinist Isabell Faust, who has been praised by New York Times: “Her sound has passion, grit and electricity but also a disarming warmth and sweetness that can unveil the music’s hidden strains of lyricism.” The violin concerto is followed by György Kurtág’s Doloroso. As third part of the programme, the Orchestre de Paris performs Mahler’s 4th Symphony, built around the song “Das himmlische Leben” (The Heavenly Life) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, presenting a child’s vision of Heaven. The soprano solo is sung by Christina Landshamer.
Paris: Hommage à Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez, a seminal figure in the field of contemporary classical music, died on January 5th 2016. His name is closely connected to the Orchestre de Paris, which he has conducted more than a hundred times, and to the Philharmonie de Paris, whose “Grande Salle Pierre Boulez” was brought into existence due to his continuous endeavor.Two weeks after Boulez’ death, supported by young musicians from the Conservatoire de Paris, the Orchestra de Paris joined forces with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the IRCAM – both founded by Pierre Boulez – in order to pay him tribute. The programme of this very special evening features a varied selection of the composer’s works. As a result of the concert night, “one simple word comes up, full of enthusiasm and emotion: merci…” (Bachtrack). PROGRAM: Pierre Boulez: Dialogue de l’ombre double extraits; Improvisation I; Messagesquisse; Dérive 1 pour six instruments; Improvisation II; Notations pour orchestre I, IV, III, II, VII