Concert - Femmes de légende

Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine
Musical Director: Marta Gardolinska
Violin: Leila Josefowicz

Mel Bonis, Salomé
Karol Szymanowski, Violin Concerto No. 2
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade

This evening celebrates two mythical female figures, Salome and Scheherazade.

The Old Testament seductress and the heroine of the Thousand and One Nights have in common that they inspired Mel Bonis and Rimsky-Korsakov to write two masterpieces of symphonic music imbued with the orientalist flavour so fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century.

Unjustly overlooked, the French composer was one of the first women to enter the composition class at the Paris Conservatoire, where she wrote Salomé for piano and then orchestra, for her manifesto cycle "Femmes de légende". Shéhérazade is a work as famous as it is unclassifiable, part symphonic poem and part suite for orchestra with solo violin.

The highlight of the evening is Karol Szymanowski's voluptuous and enchanting Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring the virtuoso bow of Leila Josefowicz and the fiery temperament of Marta Gardolinska.

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