Pablo Sáinz-Villegas
Stéphane Denève
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
The Philadelphia Orchestra Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, guitarGuitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas returns to the Festival with The Philadelphia Orchestra for Rodrigo’s luminous Flamenco-inspired Fantasia para un gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Gentleman), followed by Berlioz’ pilar of French romanticism, Symphonie fantastique and opens with Chabrier’s rhapsodic love-letter to Spain, España, conducted by Stéphane Denève.
Featured Artists
Stéphane Denève
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas
Stéphane Denève
conductor
Stéphane Denève is music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the New World Symphony, and principal guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He recently concluded terms as principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and music director of the Brussels Philharmonic and previously served as chief conductor of Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Recognized internationally for the exceptional quality of his performances and programming, Stéphane Denève regularly appears at major concert venues with the world’s greatest orchestras and soloists. He has a special affinity for the music of his native France and is a passionate advocate for music of the 21st century.
Stéphane Denève’s recent and upcoming engagements include appearances in Europe with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom he was invited to conduct the 2020 Nobel Prize concert), Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, DSO Berlin, WDR Cologne, and Rotterdam Philharmonic; and in Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Saito Kinen Orchestra at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival.
In North America, Stéphane Denève made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra - with whom he has appeared several times both in Boston and at Tanglewood - and he regularly conducts the continent’s leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Toronto Symphony. In 2022, Denève was given the honor of conducting for John Williams’ official 90th Birthday Gala with NSO Washington at the Kennedy Center; he is also a popular guest at many of the US summer music festivals, including the Hollywood Bowl, Bravo! Vail, Blossom Music Festival, Festival Napa Valley, Grand Teton Music Festival, Sun Valley Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West.
Stéphane Denève frequently performs with many of the world’s leading solo artists, including Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Nicola Benedetti, Yefim Bronfman, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Sasha Cooke, James Ehnes, Kirill Gerstein, Hélène Grimaud, Augustin Hadelich, Hilary Hahn, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Leonidas Kavakos, Lang Lang, Olivier Latry, Isabel Leonard, Paul Lewis, Nikolai Lugansky, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Kelley O’Connor, Víkingur Ólafsson, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Gil Shaham, Akiko Suwanai, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Davóne Tines, and Frank Peter Zimmermann. He also treasures the memory of Nicholas Angelich and Lars Vogt, two exceptional artists with whom he enjoyed a close musical friendship over many years.
In the field of opera, Stéphane Denève has led productions at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Netherlands Opera (including a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for the Holland Festival), Saito Kinen Festival, Gran Teatre delLiceu, La Monnaie, and Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
As a recording artist, Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a triple winner of the Diapason d’Or of the Year, has been shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year Award, and has won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His most recent releases include a live recording of Honegger’s Jeanne d’arc au bûcher with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and two discs of the works of Guillaume Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic (the first of which was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’année, Caecilia Award, and Classica Magazine’s CHOC of the Year). A boxset of his complete Ravel recordings with Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra was released in 2022 by Hänssler Classic.
A graduate and prize-winner of the Paris Conservatoire, Stéphane Denève worked closely in his early career with Sir Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa.A gifted communicator and educator, Denève is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners. In addition to his position with the New World Symphony and his long-standing relationship with the Colburn School in Los Angeles, Denève has worked regularly with young people in programs such as those of the Tanglewood Music Center, European Union Youth Orchestra, and Music Academy of the West.
For further information, please visit www.stephanedeneve.com
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas
guitar
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has been praised by the international press for his "virtuous and moving performance, with an irresistible exuberance and a range of bright colors" (The New York Times).
Undoubtedly the most virtuoso guitarist of his generation, Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has been acclaimed by the international press as the successor to Andrés Segovia and an ambassador of Spanish culture in the world. He is the first solo guitarist to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York since Maestro Andrés Segovia did so in 1983, the first guitarist to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2001, and the first guitarist to perform with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the New Year's Eve Gala since 1983.
Since his debut with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at the Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, he has performed in over 40 countries and with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Spain, as well as in venues such as the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, among many others of equal importance and reputation.
His most notable milestones include the Princess of Asturias Awards Concert and his participation in the Metropolitan Opera Gala last May at the Palace of Versailles. His numerous performances at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, which captivated more than 85,000 attendees, as well as concerts held in distinguished venues such as Grant Park in Chicago, the iconic Praça do Comércio in Lisbon, and the illustrious Hollywood Bowl, accompanied by the LA Philharmonic, have made him one of this generation’s most remarkable and prolific performers.
As a socially committed artist, he is the founder and driving force behind the non-profit association Strings in Common in the United States. He is also the creator and artistic director of the La Rioja Festival in Spain.
As an exclusive artist for SONY Classical, he has released three albums. His latest project, 'The Blue Album,' was released in June 2023. Highlights of his 2024/2025 performance season include the premier of Arturo Márquez’s Guitar Concerto, a tour of Colombia with the National Orchestra of Spain and a solo tour in Taiwan, and performances at Teatro Real of Madrid, Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, and orchestras such as Brussels Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande among many others.
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas was born in La Rioja, Spain, and has been living in the United States since 2001.
Program Highlights
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, guitar
CHABRIER España
RODRIGO Fantasía para un gentilhombre
(Fantasia for a Gentleman)
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
All artists, programs, and pricing subject to change.
Program Notes
España (Spain, 1883)
EMMANUEL CHABRIER (1841-94)
España (Spain)
Emmanuel Chabrier was one of the most beloved figures in Parisian circles of music, literature, and art in the latter half of the 19th century. When his art collection was auctioned after his death, it included seven Manets, six Monets, three Renoirs, two Sisleys, and a Cézanne—and that was just the oils! In 1882 he jotted down musical fragments he heard during a six-month vacation in Spain. That November, he wrote from Granada to his publishers: “Every evening we go to the caféconcerts where the Malaguenas, the Soledas, the Sapateado, and the Peteneras are sung. … At Málaga, the dancing became so intense that I was compelled to usher my wife away …. I can’t write about it, but I will remember it and will describe it to you. I have no need to tell you I have noted down many things: the Tango, a kind of dance in which the women imitate the pitching of a ship is the only dance in double time; all the others are in 3/4 (Seville) or in 3/8 (Málaga and Cádiz).”
The following year, after Chabrier had returned home to Paris, several of these fragments made their way into his España, which became by far his most popular concert work. It made Chabrier famous. He quickly adapted his orchestral original into a version for piano four-hands, and other arrangers produced transcriptions for further instrumental combinations, including an ambitious one for two pianos, eighthands. Many Perry Como fans may not have realized that this was the source of the melody for that singer’s 1954 hit “Hot Diggety (Dog Ziggety Boom).” Chabrier, given as he was to unbridled good spirits, probably would have been amused rather than offended by that quite nonsensical adaptation.
Fantasía para un gentilhombre (Fantasy for a Gentleman) for Guitar and Orchestra (1954)
JOAQUÍN RODRIGO (1901-99)
Fantasía para un gentilhombre (Fantasy for a Gentleman) for Guitar and Orchestra
Villano y Ricercare
Españoleta y Fanfare de la Caballería de Napoles (Fanfare for the Cavalry of Naples)
Danza de las Hachas (Dance of the Axes) Canario
Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra is such a chestnut that we think of him as one of classical music’s one-hit wonders. But others of his pieces do resurface now and again, and probably the next piece in line is his Fantasía para un gentilhombre, which followed the Concierto de Aranjuez by 15 years. Rodrigo, who was blind from the age of three, actually composed an impressive quantity of orchestral music, most of it consisting of concertos—four for one or more guitars, two for cello, one each for harp, piano, and flute. That doesn’t count his several concertante works that aren’t actually titled concierto, like the Fantasía para un gentilhombre. Apart from being the non-Aranjuez work that most frequently gets an airing, it is the piece most likely to be coupled with the Concierto de Aranjuez on recordings.
In 1951, the guitarist Andrés Segovia begged Rodrigo for a new concerto; but, Rodrigo’s wife reported in her memoirs, “after the triumph of the Concierto de Aranjuez … Joaquín felt no great desire to compose another concerto. … One day, however, he told me that he had thought it over and that he would write a ‘Suite’ on themes collected by Gaspar Sanz, the famous guitarist of the court of Felipe IV. … We carefully reviewed the works of Gaspar Sanz, and together we selected the themes which would serve as basis for this new work.” The Fantasia was premiered in San Francisco in 1958, with Segovia as soloist. “True to the dimensions of the solo instrument,” one reviewer wrote, “the ‘Fantasy’ makes no big pretensions. But it makes a delightful blend of classic dignity and Spanish musical flavor. The blend is fastidious, piquant in its dance rhythms and veiled with a peculiar melancholy.”
INTERMISSION
Symphonie fantastique: Episode de la vie d’un artiste (Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist), Op. 14 (1830)
HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-69)
Symphonie fantastique: Episode de la vie d’un artiste (Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist), Op. 14
Rêveries, Passions (Reveries, Passions):
Largo—Allegro agitato e appassionato assai—Religiosamente
Un Bal (A Ball): Valse: Allegro non troppo Scène aux champs (Scene in the Fields): Adagio
Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold): Allegretto non troppo
Songe d’une nuit du sabbat (Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath): Larghetto—Allegro
The originality of Berlioz’s achievement in the Symphonie fantastique is simply astonishing, Even those rare listeners familiar with the excellent but neglected symphonies of his predecessors in Paris, including Etienne-Nicolas Méhul and Luigi Cherubini, must acknowledge that those works do little to prepare the ear for Berlioz’s accomplishment. In the Symphonie fantastique, images are depicted with such vibrant specificity as to become downright cinematic. But Berlioz’s sense of the programmatic goes beyond the descriptive to enter the realm of the psychological—the image of a state of mind, one that is far from stable and that spills into hallucinations. (It is doubtless no coincidence that the modern Berlioz renaissance began in the acid-tripping 1960s.) The Symphonie fantastique is an extraordinary example of selfexploration and self-expression, a work of autobiography underscored by the subtitle Episode de la vie d’un artiste (Episode in the Life of an Artist).
The episode in question was carefully described in an extensive, highly detailed program note Berlioz prepared. The action is often accompanied by an idée fixe, a musical theme that surfaces throughout the piece in various transformations. It is first played by flute and violins at the beginning of the opening movement’s “Passions” section (following the “Rêveries” introduction), and pervades the ensuing material. In succeeding movements, the artist finds himself in a ballroom, where he waltzes with his beloved, and in the Alpine countryside, where memories of his beloved disturb his peace. Under the influence of a narcotic drug, he imagines himself being led to the scaffold, where he is executed for murdering his beloved, and finally to a Witches’ Sabbath convened in honor of his death, at which the idée fixe now appears as a grotesque dance heard along with a parody of the funeral chant Dies irae.
View the new 2025 Tier Seat Maps
