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Friday
October 14th
8:00 PM

Église Saint-Joachim (Pointe-Claire)

Past

Symphonic personalities

Program

Debussy

Petite Suite for orchestra (orch. Henri Büsser)

I. En bateau (Andantino)
II. Cortège (Moderato)
III. Menuet (Moderato)
IV. Ballet (Allegro giusto)

Duration: approx. 14 minutes
Cécile Chaminade

Flute Concertino in D major

I. Moderato
II. Più animato
III. Moderato
IV. Presto

Duration: approx. 8 minutes
Poulenc

Flute Sonata (orch. Lennox Berkeley)

I. Allegretto malinconico - Un peu plus vite
II. Cantilena (Assez lent)
III. Presto giocoso - Subito lento - Presto

Duration: approx. 14 minutes

Intermission: 20 minutes
Louise Farrenc

Symphony No. 1 in C minor

I. Andante sostenuto – Allegro
II. Adagio cantabile
III. Minuetto & Trio
IV. Finale (Allegro assai)

Duration: approx. 32 minutes

Media

At a time when women weren’t typically considered composer material, Louise Farrenc and Cécile Chaminade triumphed against all odds. Farrenc’s Symphony recalls Brahms or Mendelssohn with a French touch, while Chaminade’s Concertino and Poulenc’s Sonata highlight the versatile flute playing of soloist in residence Emmanuel Pahud, one of the greatest virtuosos playing today. A young Debussy pays homage to the great French composers of his time.

Pre-concert Experience

Works

Debussy

1862 – 1918

Petite Suite for orchestra (orch. Henri Büsser)

Version for piano four hands premiered in Paris on February 2, 1889, by Debussy and Jacques Durand; orchestral version premiered in Paris in 1907 at the Concerts Lamoureux

Three years after winning the Prix de Rome in 1885, Claude Debussy ended his residence at the Villa Medici. He then embarked on his bohemian years, during which, intent on rejecting any and all academicism, he decided to follow his own path, albeit one that renewed with the spirit of French music as opposed to the enormous influence of Wagner. Among a string of works that marked the maturation of his style, he composed a Petite Suite for piano four hands that “humbly seeks only to please” and that Henri Büsser would orchestrate to the composer’s complete satisfaction in 1907.

In its four movements, inspired by poems from Paul Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes and reminiscent of Chabrier, Fauré and Borodin, Debussy creates a subtle and refined harmonic atmosphere, flexibly mixing tonalities and fashioning a simple yet ingenious thematic development. In “En bateau”, an undulating barcarole, an airy, luminous flute floats on shifting arpeggios of shimmering water. There follows a somewhat formal “Cortège” and a “Menuet” that takes a few measures to reveal its beat and bathes in a sweet melancholy. The joyous concluding “Ballet”, a kind of bourée, makes room part way through for a waltz tinged with lyricism. While undeniably a minor work, this Petite Suite, these days usually heard in its orchestral version, has lost none of its charm.

Cécile Chaminade

1857 – 1944

Flute Concertino in D major

Premiered in London in 1902 by Marguerite de Forest Anderson and an unidentified orchestra

Born in Paris to a well-to-do family, Cécile Chaminade was, despite her gifts and being taken under Bizet’s wing (he nicknamed her “my little Mozart”), prevented from entering the Conservatoire. Though a music lover, her father felt her primary role should be that of “wife and mother.” She consequently studied piano and composition as a private student, eventually becoming a much sought-after concert performer. Consisting largely of piano pieces and songs, her abundant production connects her to the final wave of French romanticism. In 1913, she became the first female composer to be made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.

First composed for flute and piano, her Concertino was commissioned in 1902 by Théodore Dubois as a competition piece for Conservatoire students. Chaminade dedicated it to Paul Taffanel, a flute professor at the institution, and the version she prepared for a concert in London later the same year would be her last orchestral work. Consisting of a single movement, it opens with a broad melody that leads to sections featuring varied tempos and atmospheres. A brilliant cadenza heralds a reprise of the main theme before an animated coda. Though the flute is fully exploited over its entire range, the extraordinary virtuosity in no way distracts from the work’s beauty.

Poulenc

1899 – 1963

Flute Sonata (orch. Lennox Berkeley)

Premiered at the Festival de Strasbourg on June 18, 1957, with Jean-Pierre Rampal playing the flute and Poulenc the piano

Francis Poulenc began studying the piano at age five before being taken on as a student by pianist Ricardo Viñes. Beyond his composition studies with Charles Koechlin, he always cultivated an independent spirit, against any excess and imbued with a tender irony and lack of affectation, in both his melodic invention and his harmonic refinement. Though far from voluminous, his chamber music reveals a predilection for woodwinds, which he felt were closer to the human voice.

Poulenc had been thinking of writing a flute sonata since 1952. A commission from the U.S. Library of Congress in the memory of patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge provided the opportunity. Completed in Cannes in 1957, it enjoyed immediate success. In 1976, British composer Lennox Berkeley brilliantly orchestrated the piano part. A critic wrote: “The best Poulenc and even a little better . . . in the great French tradition, that of Couperin to Debussy.” Its first movement is built around a descending chromatic idea in an elegiac setting with hints of wistfulness surfacing now and then. The poignantly themed Cantilena fully exploits the vocal qualities of the instrument. A lively Presto giacoso, which Poulenc asks to be played as fast as possible, brings this 20th century milestone of the flute repertoire to a close.

Louise Farrenc

1804 – 1875

Symphony No. 1 in C minor

Premiered in Brussels on February 23, 1843, conducted by François-Joseph Fétis

As though it feared comparison with the masters of the genre at the time, the Germans, 19th-century France can boast of very few symphonists other than Berlioz. Exceptions to this seeming rule are the three symphonies of Louise Farrenc, née Dumont. Born in Paris in 1804 to a family of artists, she first studied piano with Hummel and Moscheles before enrolling at the Conservatory, where she became a student of Anton Reicha. In 1821, she married flautist, musical publisher and historian Aristide Farrenc, who ardently defended her music throughout his life. The composer completed her Symphony No. 1 in C minor in 1841, one year before being appointed a professor at the Conservatory.

The work received its premiere two years later in Brussels and wouldn’t be heard in Paris until 1845, both times with success. Adhering closely to the structure established by the Viennese classics, it begins with an Andante sostenuto that creates a mysterious atmosphere with its low strings, answered first by the clarinet and then the other winds. Its dramatic tension gives way to the Allegro, lightened by passages of great serenity. Drawn in large gestures, the ensuring Adagio cantabile has an energy that evokes a stroll through a beautiful landscape. The finely constructed Minuetto and Trio are very much in a classical vein, while the work’s initial dramatic intensity makes a return in the swirling Finale.

Conductor & Soloists

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Conductor

The Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, Yannick Nézet-Séguin signed a “lifelong” commitment with the Orchestre in September 2019. In September 2018, he became the third Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera (MET), New York in addition to his ongoing duties as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he has served since 2012. In 2016-2017, he became a lifetime Honorary Member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

After a ten-year tenure with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, he was appointed Honorary Conductor in 2019, a position he holds to this day.

He has worked regularly with many leading European ensembles and enjoyed many close collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk and Chamber Orchestra of Europe as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2008 to 2014. His opera interpretations have been acclaimed in many of the world’s most famous houses, including the Metropolitan Opera (New York), La Scala (Milan), and the Royal Opera House (London), in the Salzburg Festival, as well as in such renowned concert halls as the Musikverein (Vienna), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Festspielhaus (Baden-Baden) and Carnegie Hall (New York).

Yannick Nézet-Séguin records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon label while continuing his role in the collaborative partnership between ATMA Classique and the OM. His honours include being named Artist of the Year by the prestigious magazine Musical America and receiving the Virginia Parker Award, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award (London), Canada’s National Arts Centre Award (Ottawa), the Prix Denise-Pelletier, awarded by the Quebec government, the Medal of Honor of the National Assembly of Quebec, the Oskar Morawetz Award and Orchestras Canada’s Betty Webster Award, the Rubies Award by Opera Canada; in 2022, he receives the Grammy Award of the Best Orchestral Performance for Florence Price’s Symphony No.3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Learn more

Emmanuel Pahud

Flute

French and Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud began studying music at the age of six. He graduated in 1990 with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatoire, and went on studying with Aurèle Nicolet.

He won 1st Prize at the Duino, Kobe and Geneva Competitions, and at age 22 Emmanuel joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado, a position which he still holds today. In addition, he enjoys an extensive international career as soloist and chamber musician. Emmanuel appears regularly at prominent concert series, festivals and orchestras worldwide, and has collaborated as a soloist with leading conductors such as Abbado, Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Maazel, Nézet-Séguin, Orozco-Estrada, Perlman, Pinnock, Rattle, Rostropovich, Zinman.

Emmanuel is a dedicated chamber musician and regularly gives recitals with pianists Éric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich, as well as jazzing with Jacky Terrasson. In 1993, Emmanuel founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon de Provence together with Éric Le Sage and Paul Meyer, which is still a unique chamber music festival today. He also continues chamber music performances and recordings with “Les Vents Français”, one of the premiere wind quintets featuring François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic.

He is committed to expanding the flute repertoire and commissions new flute works every year to composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Éric Montalbetti and Luca Francesconi. Since 1996, Emmanuel has recorded 40 albums exclusively for EMI / Warner Classics, which all have received unanimous critical acclaim and awards, resulting in one of the most significant contributions to recorded flute music.

Emmanuel was honoured to receive the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music, and is HonRAM of the Royal Academy of Music. He also is an Ambassador for Unicef.