大象传媒

Donald Macleod discovers why Lalo's first opera remained unperformed for over a century, with excerpts from this exciting political drama and the folk-influenced Concerto Russe.

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.

The stage was a platform every French composer wanted to conquer. In 1867 a competition was announced. Could this be Lalo's path to success?

Divertissement no 3: Andantino
Basle Sinfonietta
Giancarlo Andretta, conductor

Piano Trio no 3 in A minor, op 26
II: Presto
Leonore Piano Trio

Sonata for cello and piano
I: Andante non troppo
Maria Kliegel, cello
Bernd Glemser, piano

Fiesque (Act 1)
Je ne puis supporter
Michelle Canniccioni, soprano, Leonora
The National Opera Orchestra of Montpellier
Latvian Radio Choir
Alain Altinoglu, conductor

Fiesque (Act 2, tableau 1 and 2)
Comment diable
Oui vengeons-nous + applause
Cette nuit
Roberto Alagna, tenor, Fiesco
Jean-S茅bastien Bou, baritone, Hassan
Franck Ferrari, baritone, Verrina
Latvian Radio Choir
The National Opera Orchestra of Montpellier
Alain Altinoglu, conductor

Concerto russe
II: Chants russe
III. Intermezzo
Elina Buksha, violin
Li猫ge Philharmonic Orchestra
Jean-Jacques Kantorow

Producer: Johannah Smith