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Love Paris in springtime? This Friday night is all about the music of France, including music by Bizet, and featuring Poulenc's Aubade, a sunny concerto that's certain to add good cheer to your evening. Stay after the concert for drinks and live jazz in the lobby!
$40 Dress Circle (A)
$30 Terrace (B)
$25 Orchestra (C)
$20 Orchestra Front (F)
(click map for interactive version)
Tickets subject to applicable service charges.
Thank you to our Late Night series sponsor: 
Program Information
This interactive concert will include conversations about the pieces, featuring Bill Eddins. There will be no intermission.
Program
Bizet: Symphony in C major: I. Allegro vivo (11')*
Poulenc: Aubade – Concerto choréographique for Piano and Orchestra (21')*
William Eddins, conductor & piano
Poulenc: Suite française (d'après Claude Gervaise) (excerpts) (12’)*
Bizet: Symphony in C major: IV. Allegro vivace (8’)*
*Indicates approximate duration
Program Notes
Symphony in C Major
Georges Bizet
(b. Paris, 1838 / d. near Paris, 1875)
First performance: February 26, 1935 in Basel
Last ESO performance: March 2000
Georges Bizet wrote two symphonies. One, he laboured over throughout his maturity (he died tragically young at only 37 years old), a work based on his travels in Italy following his Prix de Rome victory in 1857. The other symphony was an inspired flash of juvenilia, written at only 17 years old – a work which he disavowed later in life.
Yet the young man’s Symphony in C has certainly achieved a fame and acceptance that the later work, called Roma, has failed to capture. Because of his reluctance to acknowledge the work, it was not published in his lifetime, nor performed until 60 years after his death. The work’s opening movement begins with a rhythmic pattern from which a wealth of brief melodic ideas spring, all very busy and breezy. A horn call ushers in a more sedate counter-subject, though the rhythmic pulse is still there underneath. The finale is sunny and effervescent, with several melodies entering and exiting, all in a delightful scamper, leading to a mischievous coda.
Aubade – Concerto choréographique
Francis Poulenc
(b. Paris, 1899 / d. Paris, 1963)
First performance: 1929 in Paris
Last ESO performance: 1977
Like Tailleferre (see below), Francis Poulenc was one of Les Six – a group which banded together for only a brief, though important, time in the story of French music. After getting his start in the quirky, jazz-tinged music that had all Paris talking, Poulenc tended toward more conservative works later in life, though a sense of humour was always there. His Aubade dates from 1929, and is a deliberately unusual work. “Amphibious” was how Poulenc described it, as it is both a concerto for piano and 18 instruments, as well as a ballet. It was always meant to be either danced to or presented in concert, but in either case, it was important for Poulenc that the story told in the music be known.
It is the story of Diana, the huntress of Greek myth, who finds herself, “burning with a love that consumes her purity.” Upon awakening in the forest of Fontainebleau, she is dressed by her handmaidens. Condemned to chastity and despondent over the love that consumes her, she dances while clasping to her breast a bow her friends had given her. Suddenly, she throws the bow away and darts into the woods. The piano takes the part of Diana in this concert setting of the work, which was commissioned by the Vicomte de Noailles and his wife.
Suite française (d’après Claude Gervaise)
Francis Poulenc
(b. Paris, 1899 / d. Paris, 1963)
First performance: 1935 in Paris
Last ESO performance: September 1999
Both Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric were members of the short-lived but important circle of composers known as “Les Six”. In 1935, Edouard Bourdet commissioned both men to compose incidental music for his new play La reine Margot. The period piece told the tale of the queen of Henri IV, who became King of France in 1594. Poulenc was given Act II for which to compose music. He decided to set the music of a composer from that time, but updating the harmonies and musical style to 1930s France. He chose Claude Gervaise (1540-1560), who managed in his brief life to compose and publish a set of Danceries, which Poulenc used for his music.
Poulenc’s Suite française is scored for winds with percussion and harpsichord. Five of the seven movement are rescorings of the music of Gervaise. The first and fifth movements are original Poulenc compositions, but based on the ancient French dance form the Bransles, and are meant to be evocative of the play’s title character.
Program Notes © 2010 by D.T. Baker
Artist Information
Bill has been playing piano since he was five when his parents bought a Wurlitzer Grand piano at a garage sale. He started conducting during his sophomore year at the Eastman School of Music, and most of the '80s were spent trying to decide whether to pursue a career in conducting or piano. The quandary was answered for him when he realized that the life of a poor, starving pianist was for the birds. In 1989 Bill decided to study conducting with Dan Lewis at the University of Southern California, from whence he managed to land assistant conductor posts with the Chicago Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra in 1992.
Bill has many non-musical hobbies including: cooking, eating, discussing food, and planning dinner parties. He is also quite fond of biking, tennis, reading, and pinball. Unfortunately, due to pianistic paranoia his days in the martial arts are long over.
Bill is committed to bringing classical music to the greater public. He has started a podcast – Classical Connections – which is dedicated to exploring the history of classical music and highlights live chamber music performances in which Bill has taken part (check it out for yourself at Bill Eddins' website). He has also produced a solo piano CD – Bad Boys, Volume I – which features Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata and Albright's Nightmare Fantasy Rag. His latest recording, on the Naxos label, features American music for cello and orchestra.
A native of Toronto, Lucas Waldin has spent summers studying in Europe, including studies at the International Music Academy in Leipzig, the Bayreuth Youth Orchestra, and the Acanthes New Music Festival in France. On this continent, he has studied under the renowned Bach conductor Helmut Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival, and has attended conducting masterclasses with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto. Mr. Waldin received a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance from the Cleveland Institute, studying with Joshua Smith.
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