Opening concert

Jonathan Nott conductor
Francesco Piemontesi piano
Elçim Özdemir alto

Kaija Saariaho
Ciel d’hiver, for orchestra
Beat Furrer
Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 2, world premiere
Co-commission: Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Bayerischer Rundfunk musica viva
Intermission
Hector Berlioz
Harold in Italy, Op. 16

Focused on contemporary creation, our opening program begins in a very poetic way with Ciel d’hiver by the great Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho who died in 2023 which perfectly sums up the captivating atmosphere of her style, with its colorful orchestration and its ability to describe the scale and awe of nature. Attracted by the visual arts and literature which nourish and enrich his creative process, the Swiss Beat Furrer writes dense and rich music, exploring sound worlds that are constantly questioned. After a First Piano Concerto exploring the resonances and harmonic spectra of the instrument, Beat Furrer continues the experience with this Piano Concerto No. 2 presented as a world premiere. A pioneer in his time, Hector Berlioz composed Harold en Italie by superimposing his own memories of travels to Italy with the inspiration of the poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage that Lord Byron wrote during his stay in Geneva.
Approximately 1h45 including a 20-minute intermission