Teatro Manzoni, Bologna Frédéric Chaslin — Brahms and Poulenc
Bologna, Auditorium Manzoni — Main Hall
About the Event
An orchestra of great tradition, Sergiu Celibidache, ZoltánPeskó, Vladimir Delman, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, and Michele Mariotti have taken turns at its helm as music directors. Among the conductors who have led the ensemble are Gary Bertini, Myung‐Whun Chung, James Conlon, Pinchas Steinberg, Valery Gergiev, Eliau Inbal, Vladimir Jurowskij, Daniel Oren, Peter Maag, Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovič, Esa Pekka Salonen, Georg Solti, Christian Thielemann, Charles Dutoit, Georges Prêtre. The Teatro Comunale Orchestra is frequently invited abroad (Holland, Romania, Spain, France and Switzerland) and has participated in prestigious festivals (Amsterdam 1987, Parma 1990, Wiesbaden 1994, Santander 2004 and 2008, Aix en Provence 2005, Savonlinna 2006, Macau 2013, Muscat 2015, Guanajuato in Mexico 2017, Paris 2018). A privileged relationship with Japan has resulted in several tours, most recently in June 2019 in Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama, Fukuoka, with Rigoletto and Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Johannes Brahms
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, op. 77
The monumental breadth with which Brahms’s only Violin Concerto opens immediately certifies the greatness of the undertaking, shaped on a model from Beethoven to Schumann, via Mendelssohn, to the rustic, almost Gypsy‐like third movement. The Concerto’s guardian angel was Joseph Joachim, one of the most extraordinary virtuosos of the nineteenth century. It was to him that Brahms deferentially submitted the score, inviting him to make any necessary corrections. And as proof of the trust placed in the great violinist, Brahms entrusted him with the entire cadenza of the first movement, a fact more unique than rare in the history of the concerto for solo instrument in the nineteenth century.
Francis Poulenc
“Fiançailles pour rire” (Orchestra. F. Chaslin).
Author of more than 150 mélodies from 1919 to 1961, Poulenc left behind a series of masterpieces such as the cycle of six mélodies for voice and piano on poems from Louise de Vilmorin’s collection of the same name, which Frédéric Chaslin transcribed for orchestra. Composed in 1939, the series was first performed on May 21, 1942 at the Gaveau Hall by Geneviève Touraine and the composer on piano. The penultimate song, “Fleurs,” is dedicated to Solange d’Ayen, duchess of Ayen and fashion editor of the French edition of “Vogue.”
Gloria in G major for soprano, choir and orchestra
The sudden death of a close friend brought Francis Poulenc closer to the Catholic faith, which he never left, honoring it with a series of sacred compositions and with that operatic masterpiece that is 1957’s “Dialogues des Carmélites,” to which the Gloria is separated by only two years. And in fact Poulenc claimed that the idea for the Gloria was born while he was working on “Dialogues des Carmélites.” As Nicola Campogrande, composer‐in‐residence at the Teatro Comunale, noted, “it would be fair to say that Poulenc did not set the sacred text to music but used its sound, its rhythm, adding them to his own sonic palette,” even with irreverent strokes. “In writing,” the French composer confessed, “I thought of those frescoes by Bozzoli in which the angels stick out their tongues, and also of those serious Benedictine monks whom I caught playing ball one day.
Practical Information
You must print out the order confirmation and show it at the box office to collect your regular ticket, starting one hour before the start of the concert, at the Teatro Manzoni, Via De' Monari 1/2.
Cast / Production
Orchestra del Teatro comunale di Bologna
Coro del Teatro comunale di Bologna
Frédéric Chaslin, conductor
Sergei Krylov violin
Julie Cherrier‐Hoffmann soprano
Gea Garatti Ansini Choirmaster
Address
Auditorium Manzoni, Via de'Monari 1/2, Bologna, Italy — Google Maps
