Gautier Capuçon / Simone Young

When he founded the Société nationale de musique in 1871 to promote French instrumental music in the face of German dominance, Saint-Saëns could not have imagined that his efforts would soon give rise to talents such as Debussy and Ravel. His First Cello Concerto is “very dramatic,” insists Gautier Capuçon, who compares its romanticism to that of Schumann. This uninterrupted melody draws the listener into an irresistible whirlwind. The Pavane for a Dead Princess navigates more delicate waters. It is, according to Ravel, “a pavane that a little princess might once have danced at the Spanish court.” The composer believed that this “incomplete and unambitious work” owed its success solely to its performers. But it is indeed the freshness of its harmonies and the delightful Ravelian orchestration that make it so special. The waves change their character as the hours pass, swelling into broad swells before returning to calm in *La Mer*, before dawn breaks in *Daphnis and Chloé* and sweeps us away in the exhilaration of its “Danse générale.”

Program
Maurice Ravel, Pavane for a Dead Princess
Camille Saint-Saëns, Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
Claude Debussy, La Mer
Maurice Ravel, Daphnis and Chloé: Suite No. 2