NOSPR / Bringuier / Hewitt / Across the ocean and back - NOSPR

What all the pieces in the programme of today’s concert have in common is a surprising trace, leading across the ocean, to the United States. The manuscript of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Overture might still be gathering dust in the Berlin archive if it hadn’t been dug out of it by Judith Rosen – a board member of San Francisco’s The Women’s Philharmonic. This resulted in the first recording of the graceful composition in 1992. Maurice Ravel needed several breaks before completing his Piano Concerto in G major. One of them was taken to work on the Concerto in D major, commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a pianist who had lost his right hand in the Great War. Among the inspirations to be found in the piece, one can hear Basque music and American jazz.

The international success of the Spanish Rhapsody was largely influenced by the New Yorkers’ 1909 concert conducted by Walter Damrosch, organised merely a year after the work’s Paris premiere. Henry Dutilleux’s Métaboles were created for the 40th anniversary of the Cleveland Orchestra, with its then-boss George Szell. It is here that the relations end: what begins is a fascinating crossing of an ocean full of various styles and musical concepts. 

Dorota Kozińska

Concert duration: approximately 70 minutes