AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS ORIENTALISM IN FRANCE AT CARNEGIE HALL FEBRUARY 10
PROGRAM INCLUDES WORKS BY SAINT-SAËNS, FRANCK, DELAGE, RAVEL AND BIZET’S ONE-ACT OPERA DJAMILEH
FEATURING PIANIST JULIA ZILBERQUIT, TENOR COLIN AINSWORTH, SOPRANO JULIA BULLOCK, BARITONE PHILIP CUTLIP, MEZZO-SOPRANO EVE GIGLIOTTI
& THE COLLEGIATE CHORALE SINGERS
“The rightness of practically every gesture inspired a certain awe; at no point did the music seem motivated by any agenda but sheer delight in sound…”—New York Times
“Leon Botstein is known for shining a spotlight on neglected composers, overlooked masterworks, and unexpected musical connections.”—WNYC
On February 10 the American Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and Conductor Leon Botstein present Orientalism in France, the fourth concert of their 2011–2012 Carnegie Hall season. A program of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century works by French composers, the concert explores the myriad forms in which European “Orientalism,” or fascination with the East, appeared in French music—and culture—during those times.
Useful to both romantics and modernists in their own ways, the Orientalist aesthetic is evidenced here in Orient et Occident by Saint-Saëns, Delage’s Four Hindu Poems, Ravel’s Schéhérezade Overture, Franck’s Les Djinns featuring pianist Julia Zilberquit and Bizet’s rarely performed one-act opera Djamileh. The opera will be sung by tenor Colin Ainsworth, soprano Julia Bullock, baritone Philip Cutlip, mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti and the Collegiate Chorale Singers.
The program begins with Saint-Saëns’ Orient et Occident, a work that employs an array of compositional and formal devices, including a five-part fugue, to explore musical stereotypes of the East and West. The piece is followed by Franck’s rarely performed symphonic poem Les Djinns, a virtuoso work for piano and orchestra (with pianist Julia Ziberquit) that calls to mind the supernatural beings of Arabic folklore and takes its structure from a poem by Victor Hugo. Delage’s Four Hindu Poems follow, which take their inspiration from music heard by the composer and his parents during a 1912 trip to India and the recordings they brought back to France. In his own words he was “trying to find those Hindu sounds that send chills up my spine.”
Ravel’s Schéhérezade Overture also comes from a place of idealization, inspired by tales of djinns, dancing harem girls and barbarian excess. His musical inspiration, however, is Rimsky-Korsakov. Ravel was fascinated by Russian music and conceived the piece as an introduction to an opera. Composed in 1898 and premiered in 1899, it remained unpublished until 1975.
The final work on the program, Bizet’s one-act opera Djamileh, was reportedly adored by Mahler. It premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1872 alongside Saint-Saëns’ La princesse jaune. Set in Egypt, the opera tells the tale of a seduction between a veiled slave girl, an Egyptian lord and his servant in a libretto by Louis Gallet, based on Alfred de Musset’s tale Namouna.
While the works on the program cover a broad spectrum stylistically, they share a fascination with scales, rhythms and timbres of music originating far from where they were composed. And while the West’s fascination with the East goes back much farther than the nineteenth century, the works performed here attempt to present a survey of French cultural attitudes of the era as expressed in the art of the time.
Program Details:
Orientalism in France
Friday, February 10, 2012
Carnegie Hall
7:00 P.M. Conductor’s Notes Q&A (free for ticket holders)
8:00 P.M. Concert
Approximately two hours and 30 minutes including one 20-minute intermission.
All seats: $25
SAINT-SAËNS
Orient et Occident
FRANCK
Les Djinns
DELAGE
Four Hindu Poems
RAVEL
Schéhérezade Overture
BIZET
Djamileh
Subscription and Ticket Information
Tickets can be purchased through CarnegieHall.org, at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, or by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800. American Symphony Orchestra subscriptions can be purchased through americansymphony.org/subscriptions or by calling (212) 868-9276.
About the American Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1962 by legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, the American Symphony Orchestra continues its mission to demystify orchestral music, and make it accessible and affordable to everyone. Under music director Leon Botstein, the ASO has pioneered what the Wall Street Journal called “a new concept in orchestras,” presenting concerts curated around various themes drawn from the visual arts, literature, politics and history, and unearthing rarely-performed masterworks for well-deserved revival. These concerts are performed in the Vanguard Series at Carnegie Hall.
The orchestra also performs in the celebrated concert series Classics Declassified at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and is the resident orchestra of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it appears in a winter subscription series as well as Bard’s annual SummerScape Festival and the Bard Music Festival. In 2010, the American Symphony became the resident orchestra of The Collegiate Chorale, performing regularly in the Chorale’s New York concert series. The orchestra has made several tours of Asia and Europe, and has performed in countless benefits for organizations including the Jerusalem Foundation and PBS.
ASO’s award-winning music education program, Music Notes, integrates symphonic music into core humanities classes in high schools across the tri-state area.
In addition to albums released on the Telarc, New World, Bridge, Koch and Vanguard labels, many live performances by the American Symphony Orchestra are now available for digital download. In many cases, these are the only existing recordings of some of the rare works that have been rediscovered in ASO performances.
Twitter: @ASOrch
For more information please contact Chris Schimpf or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.