GUILLAUME CONNESSON: WORLD PREMIERE OF A NEWLY COMMISSIONED WORK, LE TOMBEAU DES REGRETS

Commissioned by Bravo! Vail as part of the NEW WORKS PROJECT.
GUILLAUME CONNESSON (B. 1970)

At just 47 years old, Connesson brings together the imaginatively diverse range of influences you might expect from a child of the 70s and 80s, from the rich musical traditions of his native France to the movie music of Bernard Hermann and John Williams, innovators like John Adams and Steve Reich, even the get-down funk of James Brown. As Gramophone magazine noted, his “retro, razzle-dazzle eclecticism knows no bounds.”

RACHMANINOFF: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 4

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 (1926)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)

Rachmaninoff fled to America in November 1918 after he had been driven out of his native Russia by revolution. His financial situation when he arrived was difficult, since his family’s wealth had been confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and the income from the performances of his works was meager because Russia was not then a signatory of the international copyright laws that would have ensured his royalties. To support his family and pick up the frayed threads of his career, Rachmaninoff began the coast-to-coast performance tours that were to continue virtually uninterrupted for the next 25 years. So intense was his concertizing during his first American decade that he was unable to compose a single piece. It was not until 1926, when he began the Piano Concerto No. 4, that he again found time for creative work. 

The Concerto opens with an energetic orchestral flourish as introduction to the main theme, presented by the piano. A transition, filled with rippling figurations for the soloist, leads to the poetic second subject, given by the unaccompanied piano, and another lyrical strain initiated by the violins. The development section is rhapsodic in nature. The order of the themes is reversed in the recapitulation. The entire Largo is built on the movement’s opening theme. The outer sections are unsettled in emotion, mixing major and minor tonalities; the central episode is a stormy transformation of the theme. The finale is a dazzling display of athletic virtuosity for the soloist.

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 7

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1811-1812)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

The Seventh Symphony is a magnificent creation in which Beethoven displayed several technical innovations that were to have a profound influence on the music of the 19th century: he expanded the scope of symphonic structure through the use of more distant tonal areas; he brought an unprecedented richness and range to the orchestral palette; and he gave a new awareness of rhythm as the vitalizing force in music. It is particularly the last of these characteristics that most immediately affects the listener, and to which commentators have consistently turned to explain the vibrant power of the work. Perhaps the most famous such observation about the Seventh Symphony is that of Richard Wagner, who called the work “the apotheosis of the Dance in its highest aspect ... the loftiest deed of bodily motion incorporated in an ideal world of tone.” 

A slow introduction, almost a movement in itself, opens the Symphony. This initial section employs two themes: the first, majestic and unadorned, is passed down through the winds while being punctuated by long, rising scales in the strings; the second is a graceful melody for oboe. The transition to the main part of the first movement is accomplished by the superbly controlled reiteration of a single pitch. This device both connects the introduction with the exposition and also establishes the long-short-short rhythm that dominates the movement. The Allegretto scored such a success at its premiere that it was immediately encored, a phenomenon virtually unprecedented for a slow movement. In form, the movement is a series of variations on the heartbeat rhythm of its opening measures. In spirit, however, it is more closely allied to the austere chaconne of the Baroque era than to the light, figural variations of Classicism. The third movement, a study in contrasts of sonority and dynamics, is built on the formal model of the scherzo, but expanded to include a repetition of the horn-dominated Trio (Scherzo – Trio – Scherzo – Trio – Scherzo). In the sonata-form finale, Beethoven not only produced music of virtually unmatched rhythmic energy (“a triumph of Bacchic fury,” in the words of Sir Donald Tovey), but also did it in such a manner as to exceed the climaxes of the earlier movements and make it the goal toward which they had all been aimed.

Stéphane Denève, Conductor

Stéphane Denève is currently in his fifth season as principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, a position that runs through the 2019-20 season. He spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, tour, and summer concerts. His 2018-19 subscription season appearances include three weeks of concerts, two of which are devoted to a Barnes/Stokowski Festival, a celebration of the artistic passion Albert Barnes and Leopold Stokowski shared. Mr. Denève has become very well known to audiences at Verizon Hall, the Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, having appeared as guest conductor numerous times since making his debut in 2007. He has led more programs than any other guest conductor during that time period, in repertoire that has spanned more than 100 works, ranging from Classical through the contemporary, including presentations with dance, theater, film, and cirque performers. 

Mr. Denève is also music director of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire (CffOR), and with the 2019-20 season will become music director of the St. Louis Symphony. He was previously chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. 

Recent engagements in Europe and Asia include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Vienna Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he has appeared several times, both in Boston and at Tanglewood. He regularly conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He is also a popular guest at many of the U.S. summer music festivals, including Bravo! Vail, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Blossom Music Festival, and Festival Napa Valley. Summer 2018 saw his debuts at the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West, and the 2018-19 season will see him lead a major U.S. tour with the Brussels Philharmonic. 

Mr. Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yo-Yo Ma, Nikolaj Znaider, James Ehnes, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Nicholas Angelich, Lang Lang, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, and Augustin Hadelich. 

In the field of opera Mr. Denève has led productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the Opéra National de Paris. 

As a recording artist, Mr. 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 de l’Année, was shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His most recent releases are discs of Prokofiev suites and the works of Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic (awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, the Caecilia Award, and Classica magazine’s CHOC of the Year) and a disc with the piano duo Lucas and Arthur Jussen and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all for Deutsche Grammophon. 

A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. He is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners and has worked regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New World Symphony, the Colburn School, and the Music Academy of the West, among others. 

Photo: Jessica Griffin

Haochen Zhang, Piano

Since his gold medal win at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, 26-year-old Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination and spectacular virtuosity.

He has already appeared with many of the world’s leading festivals and concert series and following his performance of Liszt Concerto No. 1 at the BBC Proms with Yu Long and the China Philharmonic received rave reviews: ‘He made the Allegretto dance with Mendelssohnian lightness and Lisztian diablerie, and played the melody of the Quasi Adagio with melting softness.’ Ivan Hewitt, The Telegraph.

A popular guest soloist for many orchestras in his native China, Haochen made his debut in Munich with the Munich Philharmonic and the late maestro Lorin Maazel in April 2013, preceding their sold-out tour. Haochen has also toured in China with the Sydney Symphony and David Robertson, in Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai with the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock and following a performance in December 2014 with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in Beijing, Mo. Gergiev immediately invited him to his Easter Festival in Moscow, Russia. 

Highlights of the 16/17 season include a new recital CD, to be released by BIS in February, which includes works of Schumann, Brahms, Janacek and Liszt; extensive recital and concerto tours in Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong and Japan; return engagements with Philadelphia Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.  Haochen will also give recitals in San Francisco, Palma de Malloca, Imola, Helsingborg, among others. He makes his debuts with the RTV Slovenia and Asturias Symphony Orchestras, and will tour Europe with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra having been their resident artist in the previous season.

In past seasons, Haochen Zhang has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, London Symphony, Japan Philharmonic Singapore Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras.  In recital he has performed at Spivey Hall, La Jolla Music Society, Celebrity Series of Boston, CU Artist Series, Cliburn Concerts, Krannert Center, Wolf Trap Discovery Series, Lied Center of Kansas and UVM Lane Series, among others. International tours have taken him to cities including Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Dresden, Rome, Tivoli, Verbier, Montpellier, Helsingborg, Bogota and Belgrade.  Haochen is also an avid chamber musician, collaborating with colleagues such as the Shanghai String Quartet, Benjamin Beilman and is frequently invited by chamber music festivals in the US.

Haochen’s performances at the Cliburn Competition were released to critical acclaim by Harmonia Mundi in 2009. He is also featured in Peter Rosen’s award-winning documentary chronicling the 2009 Cliburn Competition, A Surprise in Texas. His complete competition performances are available on www.cliburn.tv.
Haochen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied under Gary Graffman. He was previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11 to study with Professor Dan Zhaoyi.

Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Guillaume Connesson, Composer

Guillaume Connesson's style has been described as highly individual in its generally accessible language, having hints of Ravel, Messiaen, Stravinsky, and others. Among his most successful works are Supernova for orchestra and Techno-Parade for flute, clarinet and piano.

Connesson was born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt in 1970. He took piano lessons in his youth and became quite accomplished on the instrument early on. Later he enrolled at the Conservatoire National de Région in Boulogne-Billancourt, where he studied piano and choral music. More advanced study came at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, where he studied composition and orchestration. Among his most important teachers have been composer Marcel Landowski, conductor/pedagogue Dominique Rouits and composer/conductor Alain Louvier.

Among Connesson's earliest successes was his orchestral work Fêtes du solstice, premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in 1992. He continued to draw attention for the compositions that followed, including the orchestral piece Night-Club, written in 1996. By this time he was attracting many impressive commissions, which he met with his usual facility and highly individual imagination. His 1997 orchestral piece Supernova, written on a commission from the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra, which premiered the work, won the Cardin Prize of the Institute of France in 1998.

Subsequent compositions also quickly gained attention. Among them are his choral work Liturgies of the Shade (2000) and Night Scenes (2001), for orchestra. Among his first recordings has been the 2005 BMG release entitled Techno-Parade, which contained the titled work as well as other instrumental pieces, including Disco-Toccata (1994) and Jurassic Trip (1998).

While Connesson has achieved success in his native France, he has been making considerable headway abroad, as well: his 2005 orchestral work Une Lueur dans l'age sombre (A Glimmer in the Age of Darkness) was commissioned by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and premiered by that ensemble in September 2005, under conductor Stéphane Denève, the work's dedicatee. It was given its Canadian premiere in November 2005 by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, also under Denève's direction. Connesson has served as professor of orchestration at the CNR, Aubervilliers, France.

Artist Biography by Robert Cummings
Photo: Ben Morris