| Rogé Plays Saint-Saens | Queensland Orchestra |
|
|
|
|
This April one of the world’s best pianists, Frenchman Pascal Rogé will perform music of the great French composer and pianist, Camille Saint-Saëns in a double concert with The Queensland Orchestra over two spectacular nights – Friday 11 and Saturday 12 April, under new Chief Conductor Johannes Fritzsch.
Famed for his elegance and delicate phrasing, Roge’s playing exemplifies all that is great in French pianism. He is known as one of the most stylish artists of his generation, both as concert artist and recitalist. Born in Paris, Rogé became an exclusive Decca recording artist at the age of 17 and has since won many prestigious awards including two Gramophone Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison award for his interpretations of the Ravel and Saint-Saëns concertos.
“Pascal’s recordings of the Ravel and Saint-Saëns’ concertos are regarded by many as the definitive interpretations of these works. It’s an enormous privilege to hear this great artist play this repertoire live in concert, his name is simply synonymous with the best playing of French music in the world,” said Tom Woods, Director of Artistic Planning at the Queensland Orchestra.
Pascal Rogé has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world. Some of the orchestras he has appeared with include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, L’Orchestre de Paris, L’Orchestre National de Radio France, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Leipzig Gewandhaus and all the major London orchestras. He appears regularly in the United States and is a frequent guest artist in Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and especially Japan. Among his recent British engagements are recitals at Wigmore Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham and the Queen Elizabeth Hall where he is a frequent guest of the International Piano Series.
Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris in 1835 and showed Mozartian precocity as both a pianist and composer. The Piano Concerto No. 5, popularly known as The Egyptian, was Camille Saint-Saëns' last piano concerto. It hints at the exoticisms of North Africa, rife with pentatonic scales and a dreamy, Nubian love song for a second movement.
The programme also features one of the most thrilling of orchestral showpieces in Don Juan, a colourful musical portrait of history’s favorite libertine, before virtue is restored in Brahms’ ground-breaking First Symphony. One of the most popular symphonies ever written it was dubbed “Beethoven’s 10th” by contemporaries; the exultant finale reminiscent of Beethoven’s 9th. As the flagship program of the season, The Queensland Orchestra’s Maestro Series features the cream of international conductors and soloists in large-scale symphonic repertoire.
The Queensland Orchestra Presents
Rogé Plays Saint-Saens
R.Strauss Don Juan
Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 Egyptian
Brahms Symphony No 1
Conductor Johannes Fritzsch
Piano Pascal Rogé
Venue: QPAC Concert Hall
Date: Friday 11 and Saturday 12 April at 8.00pm
Bookings: QTIX 136 246 or visit www.thequeenslandorchestra.com.au
|
|
Contact: |
Back
|
|
|
Thursday, 08 January 2009
|
