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Orchestre de Paris / Klaus Mäkelä

Alexandre Kantorow - Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Dowland, Schumann
Symphonic Concert
Grande salle Pierre Boulez - Philharmonie
Duration: about 2h15 with 1 intermission

Program

Distribution

Maurice Ravel
Shéhérazade - Ouverture de féérie
Camille Saint-Saëns
Concerto pour piano n° 5 « Égyptien »
Intermission
John Dowland
Lachrimae Antiquae
Robert Schumann
Symphonie n° 2
Orchestre de Paris
Klaus Mäkelä , conducting
Alexandre Kantorow , piano

From the splendours of the Orient to the inner landscapes of Dowland and Schumann, this rich and eclectic programme draws the orchestra into vast and evocative realms.

Ravel’s ‘fairy overture’ Shéhérazade (1898), the only surviving work from an Orientalist opera period in his youth, is a score of shimmering colour, clearly reflecting the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov and, more broadly, Russian music. The song of the solo oboe at the start recalls the formidable melodist that Ravel would become.

Written just two years earlier, Saint-Saëns’ Concerto No. 5 (1896) offers another ‘vision of the Orient’ inspired by his journey to Luxor, Egypt. The Andante in particular presents a highly stylized image of the East: the composer said his inspiration was ‘a Nubian love song sung by boatmen on the Nile...’.

After a leap into the past with Dowland’s Lachrimae Antiquae (1604), a ‘lamento’ or pavane that poetically explores the depths of affliction and the source of tears, the sense of anguish continues with Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 (1846), a work in four movements reflecting the spirit’s desperate struggle against the onslaught of illness. 

Philharmonie Live

Concert broadcasted live and available on demand until November 15, 2024 on Philharmonie Live.

Watch the concert

Media

John Dowland : Lachrimae Antiquae - Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel (direction) Apple Music
Maurice Ravel : Shéhérazade - Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Pierre Boulez (direction)
Camille Saint-Saëns : Concerto pour piano n° 2 - Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Aldo Ciccolini (piano), Emmanuel Krivine (direction)
Robert Schumann : Symphonie n° 2 - Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (direction)
Karina-Canellakis

Grande salle Pierre Boulez - Philharmonie

See the venue

Getting here

Porte de Pantin station
Paris Underground (Métro) Line 5
Tram 3B 

Address

221 avenue Jean-Jaurès, 75019 Paris

To leave after this concert

taxi G7