Finnegan Downie Dear, conductor

PROGRAMMA

Piano Concerto in G major

Age of composition: 1921-1931
First performance: 14 Jan 1932, Paris
Movements:

1. Allegramente
2. Adagio assai 
3. Presto 

In the early part of his career, Ravel showed no interest in solo concerts, a genre so flourishing in the past that it attracted only Neoclassicism, now at the peak of success. The pianist Paul Wittgestein, brother of the philosopher Ludwig, commissioned a work for his left hand, having lost his right arm in the Great War. Ravel’s inspiration lights up and, in parallel with the concert for Wittgestein in D major, he composes one in G major for Marguerite Long: they debut at a short distance, in 1932, one dark and dramatic, the other, according to the same author “gay and brilliant”. Only a few months later a head injury in a car accident led Ravel to inactivity and, in 1937, death.

Symphony No. 101 in D major, “The Clock”

Age of composition: 1793 – 1794
First performance: 3 Mar 1794, Hanover Square Rooms, London
Movements:

1. Adagio – Presto
2. Andante
3. Menuetto: Allegretto
4. Vivace

In 1790, after spending thirty years at the Esterházy court in Eisenstadt, the death of Prince Nicholas I (whose heir Anthony had to repay his debts and limit his musical activities) Haydn found himself free from all commitments and receiving a pension. Then, almost sixty years old, he experienced professional independence and accepted the invitation for two tours in London. The reception is triumphal, rewarding in economic and personal terms (he also gets an honorary degree at Oxford), fruitful for the production of two oratorios and the last twelve symphonies called “London”. These include the ninth, the 101, called The Clock for the Rhythm imprinted in the second movement by oboes, second violins and cellos.