Orchestre national de Lyon | Slovenská filharmónia

Orchestre national de Lyon
Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Renaud Capuçon, violin

Leonard Bernstein
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Maurice Ravel
George Gershwin

Divertimento for orchestra
Violin Concerto in D major Op. 35
Gaspard de la nuit / orch. Marius Constant
An American in Paris

This festival evening follows the line France – U.S.A. Orchestre National de Lyon was founded in 1905. Today it is shaped by the personality of one of the most significant American conductors Leonard Slatkin. Bernstein’s Divertimento abounds with grace, instrumental acrobatics and freshness. Korngold’s Violin Concerto reflects all beauties and pleasures of this world, an everlasting desire … it is a superb mixture of the soul of European symphonism and infectious ease of Hollywood musical projects which earned fame for this author of film scores. It will be performed by Renaud Capuçon, who is ‘electrifying the audience by his rendering filled by emotion and excitement, and whom the humbleness towards music and his mastery never allow to slip into routine’.

Maurice Ravel’s piano cycle Gaspard de la nuit even in its title embodies contrasting expressions: it is about dark visions, anxiety and nightmare, narrated by Ravel in his story with typical French elegance and ample imagination. Rich piano texture led the Romanian composer Marius Constant to the creation of a lavish orchestral version of the piece.

Finishing the night a captivated young man from Brooklyn – George Gershwin – will present himself, fascinated by the Paris atmosphere and desiring to repeat the success of Rhapsody in Blue. Thus an ingenious and compositionally masterful collection of musical images of Paris of the first half of the 20^th century originated. This little symphonic concert book of travels indeed possesses a power to infect the listeners with its optimism.