Repertoire
Florent Schmitt: Sélamlik, divertissement for band, Op.48 (1906) 5’
Kenneth Hesketh: Diaghilev Dances (2002) 15’
Maurice Ravel: La Valse (1920/2004) 13’
Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune (1894) 10’
Mickey Nicolas: Listening to Paris (17’)
ARTISTS
Barcelona Symphonic Band (BMB)
Miguel Etchegoncelay, conductor
Programme
This concert’s title is inspired by the final piece in the programme, Listening to Paris by Mickey Nicolas, a work that follows the tradition cultivated during the first half of the 20th century of invoking the “City of Light” as a source of inspiration. The artistic avant-garde also explored the limits of tradition in music, with composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel serving as notable examples.
Through the work of the former, we will delve into the realm of impressionist suggestion with his legendary Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), in which the sound emerges and unfolds with a sensual quality that we will re-encounter —finally set free— in Ravel’s La Valse (The Waltz). The concert will open with two pieces that, to some extent, frame the period in question and its artistic influences: Sélamlik, a divertimento for band by the never fully recognised Florent Schmitt, and Kenneth Hesketh’s Diaghilev Dances, a work explicitly linked to the Parisian stage, on which Stravinsky left his mark.
