Renaud Capuçon with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
The renowned French violinist and conductor has chosen a captivating program for his upcoming concert with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum.
The evening will feature Pelléas et Mélisande Suite and Violin Concerto by Gabriel Fauré, along with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Symphony No. 3. If you are unable to attend the concert in person on Monday, December 9, you can tune in to the live broadcast on Czech Radio Vltava at 7:30 PM or catch the recording on Czech Radio D-dur two days later.
Gabriel Fauré, a former student of Camille Saint-Saëns who later became a teacher and director of the Paris Conservatory, left his Violin Concerto unfinished. Composed between 1878 and 1879, only the first movement survives. Its performance transports listeners to the closing mood of Romanticism.
The premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande, a play by Belgian Nobel Prize-winning author Maurice Maeterlinck, took place in 1893. While Claude Debussy was initially commissioned to compose the incidental music, Gabriel Fauré ultimately stepped into the role. His suite serves as a quintessential example of French music, characterized by delicate tonal colors, captivating subtle dynamics, understated moods, and beguiling lyricism that perfectly complements the mysterious narrative.
In the third (Scottish) and fourth (Italian) of his symphonies, inspired by his travels, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy achieved a remarkable synthesis of classical form with Romantic expressiveness. These works brim with ideas, character, and individuality. During his 1829 journey, the 20-year-old Mendelssohn found inspiration in Edinburgh for a symphony he completed a decade later. Its subtitle, Scottish, aptly reflects its more melancholic tone. The symphony premiered in Leipzig in the spring of 1842.
