Debussy & Ravel's Bolero
Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
412-392-4900
May 4, 2012 - May 5, 2012
Artists
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Lise de la Salle, piano
Stephanie Lauricella, mezzo-soprano
Juan José de León, tenor
Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh
Betsy Burleigh, director
Andrew Ostrowski, lighting designer
Program
| Claude Debussy: | Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun |  |
| Lili Boulanger: | Psalm 130 | |
| Maurice Ravel: | Piano Concerto in G major | |
| Maurice Ravel: | Bolero | |
About This Performance
Revel in two favorites by French composers Debussy and Ravel—Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Boléro. Maestro Honeck’s unique interpretation of Boléro includes artistic lighting design to stimulate
your senses with a stunning complementary combination of light and sound. Plus, experience young French pianist Lise de la Salle making her PSO debut with the colorful Piano Concerto by Ravel. Ms. de la Salle recently received the Diapason d'Or and was named "Editors Choice" in Gramophone Magazine for her new album -- Liszt: Lise de la Salle. (Please see below for other praise of her new album.)
2011-2012 subscribers save 15% on tickets to this special Paris Festival concert.
Join us on Friday, May 4 for WQED Night at the PSO! For more information on WQED Night, call the PSO Group Sales Dept. at 412.392.4819.
Praise for Pianist Lise de la Salle's New Album -- Liszt: Lise de la Salle
"de la Salle gives us a Liszt recital of astonishing strength, poetry and, for one so young, musical maturity. Whether in fist-shaking defiance, radiance or baleful resignation, she is superbly responsive to Liszt's rhetoric in the Dante Sonata. Here, as elsewhere, everything is given time to "speak, to weep and sing and sigh" (part of Liszt's own definition of a true virtuoso)."
- Gramophone Magazine
"More satisfying, overall is another Liszt recital, on the Naïve label, from the gifted young French pianist Lise de la Salle, who uses her formidable technique and poetic instincts to illuminate her selections from within."
- The Chicago Tribune
"...de la Salle brings a raw intensity and dramatic power that is compelling."
- The Classical Review
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Read more about the Paris Festival |
Explore & Engage
CONCERT PRELUDE: A Window into Parisian Salons with Mary E. Davis
6:45 pm, on stage
The Parisian salon, a touchstone for French culture in the 18th and 19th centuries, continued to thrive in the 20th. Whether in the drawing room of a Right Bank mansion or the back room of a Left Bank bookstore, the city's artists and intellectuals–Debussy and Ravel among them–met to exchange ideas and make contacts with aristocratic patrons and influential members of the press. This talk by Mary E. Davis, Professor of Musicology at Case Western Reserve University, explores the legacy of these interactions, which can be traced not only in artistic works and musical compositions, but also in institutions and initiatives ranging from Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to the American School at Fontainebleau.
CINEMATHEQUE: La Passion Boléro
Directed by Michel Follin, France, 2007
6:45 pm, Dorothy Porter Simmons Regency Rooms
Considered exasperating or captivating, hummed the world over in any number of arrangements, the most performed piece of classical music, Maurice Ravel's Boléro, is part of us — in our genes, as Jean Echenoz, the author of Ravel, puts it in this film.
How did a work of such apparent simplicity become the biggest hit in the classical repertory? Perhaps one of the keys to its success can be found in the handful of pages that Claude Lévi-Strauss devoted to Boléro in his book, "The Naked Man." He explains the work's universality in that he sees Ravel as a musician of a "message" that makes the listener "a negative creator, for whom the music emanating from the composer fills in the gaps."
With the participation of Jean Echenoz, Marcel Marnat, Michel Sendrez, Kurt Masur and the Orchestre national de France, as well as Katia & Marielle Labèque.
FOOD & WINE TASTING EVENT
6:45 pm,Grand Lobby/Grand Tier Lounge
Enjoy food samples from local restaurants and $1 wine tastings from Courtyard Wineries, a regional winery located east of Erie in North East, PA. Try wines from Courtyard's two distinct lines— La Courette and Barjo Bons.
POST-CONCERT: Fascinatin' Rhythm: Gershwin Songs with the Budways
Grand Lobby
Stay after the concert to enjoy Gershwin classics in the Grand Lobby with Pittsburgh jazz legends Maureen and Dave Budway. Selections will include: S'Wonderful, I Got Rhythm, Our Love is Here to Stay, Fascinatin' Rhythm, and various songs about Paris...voila!
*Doors open one hour and thirty minutes before all Paris Festival performances at Heinz Hall.
*All pre- and post-concert events are free to ticketholders.
Learn more about the Explore & Engage program
This concert is a Subscriber Special Concert:
Venue Details
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Groups of 10 or more can save up to 20% on tickets for this performance. To inquire by phone, call 412.392.4819 or send an email to group_sales@pittsburghsymphony.org