Over to Paris this week for a concert by Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Myung-whun Chung and featuring Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos in music by Dusapin and Brahms. It was broadcast live on June 23, 2011 from Salle Pleyel in Paris.
Beginning the concert with the world premier of Morning In Long Island, Concerto Number 1 for Orchestra and concluding with Brahms Violin concerto, featuring Leonidas Kavakos.
Pascal Dusapin, is the author of numerous pieces for soloists, chamber music and large orchestra as well as lyrical works, and is recognized for his operas.
Born on May 29, 1955 In Nancy 1, Pascal Dusapin initially learned music through private lessons, particularly piano and organ. Beyond contemporary music, Pascal Dusapin was interested in jazz and continued to play the organ. Then, having arrived in Paris in 1969, he studied as a free auditor at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris with Olivier Messiaen then, between 1974 and 1978, at the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne and took lessons with the Franco-Greek composer Iannis Xenakis (of whom he was the only student). At university, he mainly studied musicology, visual arts and art sciences 1 and was awarded the Marcel-Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation for Vocation in 1977, after having benefited from its sponsorship. Pascal Dusapin was quickly influenced by the musical language of Iannis Xenakis but also by the Frenchman Edgard Varèse, particularly his 1927 orchestral piece, Arcana. He finally studied with Franco Donatoni during composition seminars.
In 2018, Emmanuel Macron commissioned him (and the German sculptor Anselm Kiefer ) to create a permanent work to accompany the transfer of the ashes of the writer Maurice Genevoix to the Panthéon in Paris onNovember 11, 2020. The work, entitled In nomine lucis(“In the name of light”) refers to the title of a piece for organ by the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (1974). Pascal Dusapin, for his part, chose to set to music texts from three Latin sources:Ecclesiastes, Virgil, and “funeral locutions of ancient Rome “, to which he associated the names of 15,000 dead for France read byFlorence Darel and Xavier Gallais. The composer’s ambition was to make “the stones sing” and indicates that he wanted to transform the Pantheon “into a singing lung”. To achieve this, the work, sung and recited, was previously recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris by the Accentus Chamber Choir, conducted for the occasion by Richard Wilberforce. During the ceremony,In nomine lucis was broadcast by seventy loudspeakers hidden in fake stone blocks placed in different parts of this “secular cathedral”: the choir and the transepts.
Leonidas Kavakas – has won several international violin competition prizes, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. Leoniads Kavakos has also recorded for Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Myung-whun Chung – was chief conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken from 1984 to 1990, and principal guest conductor of the Teatro Comunale Florence from 1987 to 1992.[3] At the end of the 1987–88 seasons, he received the Premio Abbiati award from Italian critics, and the following year awarded the Arturo Toscanini prize. Chung was the Paris Opera’s music director from 1989 to 1994, during which time he opened the inaugural season at the new Opéra Bastille. He opened the inaugural season at the new Opéra Bastille with Berlioz’s complete Les Troyens and received highly praised reviews from the music circle. In 1991, the Association of French Theatres and Music Critics named him “Artist of the year” and in 1992 he received the Legion d’Honneur for his contribution to the Paris Opéra. An exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon since 1990, many of his numerous recordings have won international prizes and awards.
Enjoy the concert.
