Postcard from Paris
From the Court of Louis XIV at Versailles to Notre Dame to the Bois de Boulogne – join us on a tour around Paris, with a rich menu of Gallic delights to tickle the musical palate.
Read more…- Lully•Psyché LWV 45: Entrée de la suite de Mars (Act V)•Entrée de la suite de Mars
- Lully•Isis LWV 54: Des peuples paroissent transis de froid – Choeur des Peuples des climats glacés – 'Laissez-moi, cruelle Furie!' (Chorus, Io, The Furry, Act IV)•L'hiver qui nous tourmente – Laissez-moi, cruelle Furie!
- Rameau•Les Indes galantes RCT 44: Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix (Act IV) (Danse des Sauvages)•
- Gluck•Orphée et Eurydice GluckWV 1.43 (Paris 1774)•Act II • 7. Danses des ombres heureuses. Lent et très doux
- Gluck•Orphée et Euridice GluckWV 1.43 (Paris 1774): 'Amour, viens rendre à mon âme' (Orphée, Act I) (Arr. H. Berlioz)•Amour, viens rendre à mon âme
- Gluck•Orphée et Eurydice GluckWV 1.43 (Paris 1774): 'J'ai perdu mon Eurydice' (Orphée, Act III)•J'ai perdu mon Eurydice
- Mozart•Symphony No. 31 in D major KV 297 “Paris”•I. Allegro assai
- Haydn•Symphony No. 83 in G minor Hob. I:83 "La Poule" (The Hen)•I. Allegro
- Gossec•Symphony in D major op. 13/3 “Simphonie de Chasse”•IV. Tempo di caccia
- Méhul•Symphony No. 1 in G minor•IV. Finale. Allegro agitato
- Rossini•Guillaume Tell: 'Sombre forêt' (Mathilde, Act II)•Sombre forêt
- Chopin•Waltzes op. 34•Waltz No. 2 in A flat major op. 34/1 B. 94 'Valse brilliante'. Vivace
- Meyerbeer•Les Huguenots: 'O beau pays de la Touraine' (Marguerite, Act 2)•O beau pays de la Touraine
- Adam•Giselle, ou les Wilis•Act 2 • No. 10 Apparition et scène de Myrtha
- Wagner•Tannhäuser WWV 70: Bacchanale (Venusberg Music, Act I)•Allegro – Molto moderato – Allegro
- Verdi•Les Vêpres siciliennes (Paris 1855): 'Ô jour de peine et de souffrance!' (Henri, Act IV)•Ô jour de peine et de souffrance!
- Berlioz•Les Troyens H 133•Act IV • No. 29. Pantomime. Chasse royale et orage (Royal Hunt and Storm)
- Delibes•Lakmé: 'Viens, Mallika' – 'Dôme épais le jasmin' (Lakmé, Mallika, Act I)•Viens, Mallika – Dôme épais le jasmin
- Bizet•Carmen Suite No. 1•5. Les Dragons d'Alcala (Entr'acte I, Act 2)
- Gounod•Faust: 'Le veau d'or est toujours debout' (Méphistophélès, Act II)•Le veau d'or est toujours debout
- Massenet•Manon•Act 3 • 16. Toi! Vous! - Oui, je fuis cruelle - N'est-ce pas ma main (Des Grieux, Manon)
- Saint-Saëns•Symphony No. 3 in C minor op. 78 R 176 “Organ Symphony”•Maestoso – Allegro
- Offenbach•Gaîté parisienne•Ouverture
- Offenbach•Gaîté parisienne•No. 1 Allegro brillante
- Offenbach•Gaîté parisienne•No. 2 Polka
- Offenbach•Gaîté parisienne•No. 16 Cancan
- Offenbach•Gaîté parisienne•No. 22 Vivo
- Offenbach•Gaîté parisienne•No. 23 Barcarolle. Allegro moderato
- Boulanger•Fantaisie variée for Piano and Orchestra•
- Debussy•Petite suite L 71 (65) (Version for Orchestra by H. Büsser)•4. Ballet. Allegro giusto
- Ravel•Daphnis et Chloé M 57 (1909-1912)•3. Tableau III (Paysage du première tableau, à la fin de la nuit)
- Stravinsky•Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1910-1913)•Part I: L'adoration de la terre (Adoration of the Earth)
- Boulanger•D’un matin de printemps (1917-1918) (Arr. for Orchestra)•
- Satie•Gnossiennes for Piano (1889-1897)•No. 1 Lent
- Satie•Gnossiennes for Piano (1889-1897)•No. 3 Lent
- Satie•Gymnopédies (1888)•Gymnopédie No. 1 in D major (Lent et douloureux)
- Milhaud•Scaramouche, Suite for 2 Pianos op. 165b (1937)•3. Brazileira
- Auric•Moulin Rouge Suite (1952)•2. Polka
- Auric•Notre-Dame de Paris. Suite (1956)•4. Flowers for Esmeralda
- Poulenc•Les Biches, Ballet Suite FP 36b•1. Rondeau (No. 2: Très lent - Subito allegro molto)
- Ibert•Suite symphonique for Chamber Orchestra (1930) “Paris”•4. Restaurant au Bois de Boulogne
The French capital has been home to some of the world's finest composers and has also witnessed the occasional riot and musical revolution. On this journey, we begin in glorious Versailles, where Lully and Rameau reigned supreme, before moving on to central Paris.
Many great composers travelled to Paris. In 1778, the young Mozart was on an unsuccessful job hunt, but scored a huge success with his "Paris" Symphony, while Haydn composed a set of six, commissioned by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. In terms of symphonic form, François-Joseph Gossec and Étienne Méhul were early French standard bearers, although few in the 19th century followed that route.
Opera was more important to the French, both Grand Opéra at the Salle Peletier and the Palais Garnier, but also at the jewel box which is the Opéra Comique. Opera also drew foreign composers. Gluck revised his 'Orfeo ed Euridice' in French, while Rossini, Meyerbeer and Verdi all composed there. Even Wagner bowed to Parisian taste by adding a Venusberg ballet to his 'Tannhäuser'… although stubbornly placed it right after curtain-up rather than the preferred Act 3!
Swagger along the boulevards to Offenbach and call in at St Sulpice, where Saint-Saëns was christened and where, in Massenet's 'Manon', our naughty heroine seduces the abbé, Des Grieux.
In the early 20th century, Paris was the home to Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes which commissioned such works as Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloé' and Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring'. The 1913 premiere of the latter caused a scandal, with noisy arguments breaking out among the audience of the Art Deco Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
The postwar joie de vivre of Paris in the "Années folles" 1920s is captured in the music of Les Six, a group of French composers who were based in Montparnasse. We hear sparkling scores by Milhaud, Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre, and samples of Georges Auric's film music. The Roaring Twenties also inspired Gershwin, whose 'An American in Paris' draws on his lively experiences in the French capital. Bon voyage!