French connections
Valery Gergiev conducts Dutilleux
A focus on French music since 1900 throws light on how three major contemporary figures – Pascal Dusapin, Marc-André Dalbavie and Henri Dutilleux – have extended the traditions of Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen.
Pascal Dusapin, one of France's best-known living composers, has two major orchestral premieres this season: a 91Èȱ¬ co-commission, Morning In Long Island () and his concerto-like String Quartet No. 6, Hinterland for string quartet and orchestra (). He is also the subject of the first Proms Plus Portrait, which explores his chamber music with the composer himself introducing the works ().
Henri Dutilleux, who turned 95 in January, is featured in four Proms starting with one of his best-known pieces, Tout un monde lointain… for cello and orchestra, in an all-French programme that includes some of the most famous works by Ravel and Debussy (). Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra present both his violin concerto, L'arbre des songes (played by Leonidas Kavakos), and his tribute to Rostropovich, Slava's Fanfare (). In a Proms Saturday Matinee, the London Sinfonietta performs Les citations under Nicholas Collon (), while flautist Emmanuel Pahud and pianist Eric Le Sage perform his Debussyan Sonatine in a Proms Chamber Music recital ().
Emmanuel Pahud also performs the UK premiere of the Flute Concerto written for him by another major voice of French contemporary music, Marc-André Dalbavie (). There's also music by organ virtuoso Marcel Dupré () and his pupil Olivier Messiaen ().
This Proms season also includes some of the great French orchestral works of the 20th century, among them Debussy's La mer () and Messiaen's Les offrandes oubliées (), as well as Ravel's Alborada del gracioso (), Boléro (), Daphnis and Chloë () and La valse ().
