This afternoon, we鈥檙e delighted to welcome back to MediaCityUK the 大象传媒 Philharmonic鈥檚 Associate Artist, conductor Ludovic Morlot.
Two works from Ludovic鈥檚 native France will bookend the programme.
Andr茅 Jolivet originally composed his Danses rituelles in 1938-9 for solo piano and he orchestrated it the year after finishing it. Jolivet described the ritualistic purpose of the five dances at key moments in individuals鈥� lives in ancient societies: 鈥淭hese are,鈥� he said, 鈥渄ances of birth, puberty, war and virility, love and marriage, death and resurrection.鈥�
In the mid-1930s, Jolivet and Olivier Messiaen were amongst a group of composers who co-founded the group La jeune France. Their aims included re-establishing a more communicative and human way of composing and restoring spiritual values in music; Messiaen鈥檚 Hymne (au Saint Sacrement), written around this time, perfectly reflects these ideals.
Steven Osborne joins us as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No 12 in A (K 414), one of three Mozart started working on around the time he moved from Salzburg to Vienna. In a letter to his father, he described his intentions in these pieces as being 鈥渁 happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural, without being vapid.鈥�
