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The Halle, live from Nottingham

Stuart Flinders presents a concert given by the Halle, clarinettist Sergio Castello Lopez and conductor Sir Mark Elder, live from the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham.

Stuart Flinders presents a concert of works by Ravel, Debussy and Mussorgsky given by the ±á²¹±ô±ôé, clarinettist Sergio Castello Lopez and conductor Sir Mark Elder, live from the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham.

Impressions of exotic lands long held a fascination for Ravel, and a hint came early in his career: Rapsodie Espagnole is a vision of Spain conjured by his mother's memories of Madrid. It incorporates a Carmen-inspired Habanera written 12 years earlier, and concludes with a dramatic explosion of colour and passion - and castanets.

But how else to end his Bolero other than with the instruction "as loudly as possible"? Beginning life as a commission for ballerina Ida Rubinstein, Ravel built a daringly simple structure of 17 variations, whose mounting excitement is reflected in the work's signature crescendo. Its sensational success somewhat baffled Ravel, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it.

The conductor Serge Koussevitzky urged Ravel to turn his dazzling use of orchestration to an orchestral transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for solo piano, and in the process created another 20th-century classic. Ravel's gallery tour retains all the bizarre imagery and muscular realism of the original, and blends delicate image-painting with all-Russian majesty.

In between, Debussy's exacting Première Rhapsodie - a work composed as a test piece for the Paris Conservatoire's annual clarinet competition, yet one which Debussy felt to be one of the most pleasing works he had written.

Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole
Debussy: Rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra
Ravel: Bolero

INTERVAL

Mussorgsky (orch Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition

±á²¹±ô±ôé
Mark Elder (conductor)
Sergio Castello Lopez (clarinet).

2 hours, 28 minutes

Last on

Tue 17 Oct 2017 19:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

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Music and featured items

  • Part 1

    Duration: 53:57

  • Maurice Ravel

    Rapsodie Espagnole

    Orchestra: ±á²¹±ô±ôé. Conductor: Sir Mark Elder.

  • Claude Debussy

    Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra

    Performer: Sergio Castelló López. Orchestra: ±á²¹±ô±ôé. Conductor: Sir Mark Elder.

  • Maurice Ravel

    Bolero

    Orchestra: ±á²¹±ô±ôé. Conductor: Sir Mark Elder.

  • Interval

    Duration: 22:23

  • Maurice Ravel

    Ma Mere I'oye (Mother Goose) - Version for Piano with Four Hands

    Performer: Louis Lortie. Performer: Hélène Mercier.

  • Modest Mussorgsky

    Songs and Dances of Death - Field Marshall

    Performer: Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Performer: Ivari Ilja.

  • Part 2

    Duration: 42:30

  • Maurice Ravel

    Pictures at an Exhibition

    Orchestra: ±á²¹±ô±ôé. Conductor: Sir Mark Elder.

  • Post-concert

    Duration: 34:09

  • Maurice Ravel

    Sonatine

    Performer: Vadym Kholodenko.

  • Claude Debussy

    La plus que lente

    Performer: Seong-Jin Cho.

  • Claude Debussy

    L'Isle joyeuse

    Performer: Seong-Jin Cho.

  • Frédéric Chopin

    Waltz in C sharp minor, Op 64 No 2

    Performer: Maria João Pires.
    • Chopin: Piano works: Maria Joao Pires/Pavel Gomziakov.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 6.

Broadcast

  • Tue 17 Oct 2017 19:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3