大象传媒

Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at the composer behind a concert favourite, the Symphonie espagnole, first brought to public attention by the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate.

Even if you know the name, it's possible you might not be able to place the French composer Edouard Lalo date-wise. He was born in Lille in 1823. Berlioz was his senior in age by some twenty years, Saint-Sa毛ns twelve years his junior. Lalo has a direct contemporary in the shape of C茅sar Franck, another composer who preferred to stay out of the limelight. As a musician, Lalo cut an independent path, preferring to complete his music studies privately rather than following the accepted route of attending the Paris Conservatoire.

Lalo had a retiring nature, a man who appears to have preferred the quiet life. That doesn't mean he wasn't sociable. He seems to have been generally well liked. He lived in Paris from the age of sixteen and mixed with and knew all the leading musical personalities of the day. Aside from the Symphonie espagnole, he wrote several operas, a ballet, a symphony, a whole number of orchestral and chamber works including three piano trios and a string quartet, and something in the region of 30 songs.

Trying to get a handle on Lalo isn't straightforward. The first letter that鈥檚 been preserved dates from 1848, by which time Lalo was in his late twenties. His son Pierre was a primary source of information about his father, but more recent research indicates the picture he drew seems to have been somewhat rose-tinted. The first full length biography in English has yet to be published.

Donald Macleod sets about mapping the life and the music of this elusive, yet significant figure in French musical history in a survey that takes us from Lalo's early experiences in Lille, where he first met Berlioz, to his eventual triumph, age sixty on the opera stage with Le roi d'Ys.

In today's episode Lalo decides to pursue a career in music, rather dashing his father's hopes that he would follow in the family's military tradition.

Guitarre, op 28 arr. Gabriel Piern茅
Philippe Graffin, violin
Ulster Orchestra
Thierry Fischer, conductor

Symphonie espagnole in D minor, op 21
I : Allegro non troppo
Ren茅 Capu莽on, violin
Orchestre de Paris
Paavo J盲rvi, conductor

Le roi d鈥橸s - Overture
大象传媒 Philharmonic
Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Violin sonata in D major, op 12 (Grand duo concertant)
2nd movement Variations
Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, violin
Jean-Philippe Collard, piano

Piano Trio no 2
III: Minuetto: Allegro
Leonore Piano Trio

Violin Concerto no 1 in F major, op 20
I: Andante 鈥� Allegro
Jean-Jacques Kantorow, violin
Granada City Orchestra
Kees Bakels, conductor

Producer: Johannah Smith