G.Bizet – “Pastoral” from Suite No.2 “L’Arlesienne”
C.Saint-Saens – Symphony No.3 in C minor “Organ”, op.78
Soloist – Marina Romeiko (organ)
G.Bizet / R.Shchedrin – “Carmen Suite”
XXXIX Festival of Music “Minsk Spring – 2024”
Concert cycle “CLASSICS FOR EVERYONE”
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus
Chief Conductor – People’s Artist of Belarus
Alexander Anisimov
Soloist – Marina Romeiko (organ)
Conductor – People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Sergei Skripka
***
On 25 April the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus presents another concert from the “Classics for Everyone” concert cycle.
The concert will open with “Pastorale” from Suite No.2 “L’Arlesienne” by Georges Bizet. The autumn of 1872 saw the premiere of music to Alphonse Daudet’s play “L’Arlesienne”, which is magnificent in its colours and expressiveness. The drama tells the story of the fatal passion of a dreamy young man for a woman “with a dubious past”. The love of a simple peasant girl can not cure him of the fatal passion: during a night party to the sound of farandola, he commits suicide ... It is not difficult to see in these plot lines similarities with the dramatic peripetias of “Carmen”. And in terms of its music, “L’Arlesienne” represents a direct approach to the aforementioned opera.
The concert will be followed by a work by another French composer – Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Symphony in C Minor, also known as the Symphony with Organ (1886) which is dedicated to the memory of Liszt. The composer believed that in this symphony he gave the maximum of what he could give.
The symphony is in two movements, both broadly developed and large in scale. Saint-Saëns turns to Liszt’s monothematic principle: varying the basic thematicism, freely transforming it and involving the powerful orchestral apparatus with organ and piano, Saint-Saëns gives a rich change of imagery. The movements of the symphony depict two stages of soul struggle: the first ends in tones of rapturous self-denial, while the second leads to a jubilant glorification of the power of the spirit and the will to create.
The concert will conclude with Carmen Suite by G.Bizet / R.Shchedrin. The brilliant music of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (1875), the transcription of which was prepared by Rodion Shchedrin in a record 12 days in 1967 for a one-act ballet by choreographer Alberto Alonso. Performing what seemed almost an official task at the request of his beloved wife (Maya Plisetskaya), Shchedrin managed to create a vivid, contrast-rich work which rightly takes its place among the masterpieces of 20th century music.
This evening the orchestra’s great friend at the conductor’s desk is People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Russian Symphony Orchestra of Cinematography Sergei Skripka.
