FAURÉ, SAINT-SAËNS, RAVEL

Fauré’s suite Pelléas et Mélisande is the stage music for the London production of Maeterlinck’s 1898 play of the same name. After the premiere, he reworked the musical material into an attractive orchestral suite that remained among his most famous works. In each of the movements, behind which is the story of fatal, forbidden love, there is a hint of the tragic fate of the young lovers. Maestro Ville Matvejeff, who has been especially missed by the loyal concert audience, will join the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra in telling this tale of tightly intertwined romance and tragedy through the beautifully pleasing music of Fauré.

Fauré studied music with Camille Saint-Saëns, whose Second Symphony, a large-scale work, follows Fauré’s in the concert program. The Second Symphony is characterized by Saint-Saëns’s innovative ideas and avoidance of conventional form, with plenty of contrast – dramatic, “stormy” sections followed by quiet, gentle segments, and finally highly energetic sections that make the heart dance.

Following this dance is the composition that will conclude the concert program, Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose”), a suite later orchestrated for ballet. In this work, a multitude of carefully worked out details, down to the most subtle particulars, are performed along with, as Ravel himself said, the idea of “conjuring up the poetry of childhood” for children and those who are children at heart: fairy tales, secrets, enchanted worlds and enchanting sounds at two exceptional concerts of the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra!

Gabriel Fauré: Pelléas & Mélisande, Op. 80
I. Prélude (quasi adagio)
II. Fileuse (andantino quasi allegretto)
III. Sicilienne (allegro molto moderato)
IV. Mort de Mélisande (molto adagio)

Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 55
I. Allegro marcato – Allegro appassionato
II. Adagio
III. Scherzo. Presto
IV. Prestissimo

Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye / Mother Goose
I. Prélude – Très lent
II. Premier tableau – Danse du rouet et scène (Spinning wheel dance and scene)
III. Deuxième tableau – Pavane de la belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty pavane)
IV. Interlude
V. Troisième tableau – Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête (Dialogues of the Beauty and the Beast)
VI. Interlude
VII. Quatrième tableau – Petit Poucet (Hop-o’-My-Thumb)
VIII. Interlude
IX. Cinquième tableau – Laideronnette, impératrice des Pagodes (Empress of the Pagodas)
X. Interlude
XI. Sixième tableau – Le jardin féerique (Fairy Garden)

The concert lasts approximately two hours and is performed with an intermission.

Note: Concert programs depend on measures to protect against the coronavirus epidemic, which will determine the possible and/or permissible composition of the orchestra.

General sponsor of the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra