Les Siècles

For this third symphonic concert of Les Siècles’ residency on avenue Montaigne, François-Xavier Roth has chosen to set two major figures of the Vienna School in counterpoint. Berg’s Chamber Concerto, dedicated to Schoenberg for his fiftieth birthday, marks the start of the musician’s dodecaphonic period. The extreme rigour of the writing and architecture of the work for a pared-back orchestra (piano, violin and thirteen instruments) is based entirely on a subtle interplay around the number three and its multiples. However, all the instruments are required to deliver near-virtuoso performances. The second half features the older composer, Schoenberg, and his symphonic poem Pelléas et Mélisande. This is an extremely dense polyphonic score which requires a large cast of musicians. By way of introduction to these two major early twentieth-century works we are premiering a piece by the young Argentine composer Alex Nante (who was born in 1992 and pursued part of his musical education at the Paris conservatoire, graduating with a degree in composition and analysis). He was the first winner of the Pisar Prize launched by the Villa Albertine, the Julliard School in New York and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.

Coproduction Théâtre des Champs-Elysées | Les Siècles