Hope Metropolitan Orchestra - French Connections

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Hope Metropolitan Orchestra, Helen Thomas, Conductor

Pierne - A l’Eglise
Melanie (Mel) Bonis - Ophelie
Faure - Pelleas et Melisande
Bizet  - Symphony in C

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Paris, the French capital, is the place that binds these composers together. Whereas England had several centres of music outside London – Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester; Germany, too, beyond Berlin – Leipzig, Munich, Weimar; French composers had to gravitate to Paris to find success as, indeed, our four composers did.

Bizet and Pierne studied at the French Conservatoire, of which Faure became Director. Pierne and Faure were organists as well as composers. Faure and Bonis wrote extensively for singers and pianists though not so much operas, which was Bizet’s forte, notably Carmen, one of the most popular ever written. His symphony is an isolated example, composed when he was only 17. The other works being played tonight are all much shorter, even the four-movement Suite, Pelleas and Melisande. 

Despite these interconnections, the sounds of each of these composers, all essentially romantic in spirit, is very different. The music of Bizet and Faure is well known. It is also rewarding to hear Pierne and the even-more neglected Mel Bonis.