DEBUSSY, SAINT-SAËNS – JEAN-CLAUDE CASADESUS
Claude DEBUSSY: L’Après-midi d’un Faune, L. 86
Camille SAINT-SAËNS: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
***
Camille SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony No. 3 in C minor (“Organ Symphony”), Op. 78
Aurélien Pascal cello
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Jean-Claude Casadesus
A French evening in the spirit of refinement, colours, moods – and pathos. The Debussy work, L’Après-midi d’un Faune, heralds the birth of impressionism and the two Saint-Saëns compositions, the Cello Concerto in A minor and the hugely popular Organ Symphony, represent romanticism – the latter of which is heavily influenced by Liszt. It is not just the composers who are French: so are the conductor and the soloist. On the podium for the third evening of the Kocsis season ticket is the 90-year-old Jean-Claude Casadesus, one of the doyens of the international community of conductors, while the soloist of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra is Aurélien Pascal, who is still considered a young virtuoso of the cello despite his considerable international success.
The Casadesus family is a hugely important dynasty of French musicians that has gifted European musical culture with a number of outstanding performers and composers. Boasting a remarkably rich repertoire, Jean-Claude Casadesus (1935) is without doubt one of the most experienced members of the international community of conductors. He will be aged 90 when he conducts the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra for the third evening of the Kocsis season ticket. In the course-, of his work, he has always dedicated a great deal of attention to the music of his homeland, so it should come as no surprise that we will hear French works on this occasion, too.
The first item on the programme is Debussy’s symphonic prelude L’Après-midi d’un Faune, which, although written during Brahms’s lifetime in 1894, is one of the first striking examples of music’s modern age. It is worth noting that Saint-Saëns’s famous Organ Symphony, a romantic work to its core, was composed just eight years previously. The concerto to be heard between the two symphonic opuses is the Cello Concerto in A minor, also penned by the composer of Samson and Delilah. The work may be less popular than the two orchestral pieces, but it is a respected fixture on the cello repertoire. Its performer, a compatriot of the conductor, is the 30-year-old Aurélien Pascal, who has scored notable successes in international competitions in recent years.