Classic in the center - FRENCH ONLY - Grimstad Kulturhus. Catiline

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No sooner have we finished one tour than we release a new one. We are also expanding with more venues. For the first time in Classic-in-the-centre history, we visit Frydendal church in Risør.

The program this time takes us to France: We get to experience Claude Debussy, inspired by the World Exhibition in Paris ( 1889 ) and also his encounter with death. Cesar Franck brings love to life in an abstracted drama similar to Cupid and Psyche and Maurice Ravel's immortal "Pavane for a dead princess" is also on the programme.

Yejin Gil and Jan Bjøranger perform several French top-ten works this time. We look forward to seeing them again soon!

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ON THE PROGRAM:

Claude Debussy: Sonata for piano and violin in G major 

Claude Debussy: Estampes  

Pause  

Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte 

Cesar Franck: Sonata in A major for piano and violin

Yejin Gil, piano

Jan Bjøranger, violin

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ABOUT THE WORKS:   Claude Debussy intended to write a cycle of six sonatas. As he was seriously ill, he was forced to finish with the third. While the two sonatas for cello and piano and flute, viola and harp were completed in 1915, an unusually fruitful compositional year, the violin sonata caused difficulties for the composer the following year. He particularly struggled with the finale, and was only able to send the work to the publisher Durand in April 1917. Its difficult birth is soon forgotten when listening to the work: "It shows perfect classicism and is full of life", as the composer himself remarked. The sonata is Debussy's last work and the premiere was his last public appearance. The sonata has three short movements and takes about 12 minutes to perform.

Allegro vivo

Interlude: Fantasque et léger

Finale: Très animé

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Many years earlier, more precisely in 1903, Debussy completed his three-movement work "Estampes" the work is inspired by three different impressions:   "Pagodas" (pagodas) refers to Indonesian gamelan music that he experienced during the world exhibition in Paris in 1889, when, among other things, the Eiffel Tower was built. A pagoda is an Indonesian temple.

"La soirée dans Grenade" (An evening in Granada) uses Arabic scales and seeks to evoke images of Granada, Spain. Spanish composer Manuel de Falla said of the movement: "There is not a single note borrowed from Spanish folklore, and yet the composition conveys the country admirably"   "Jardins sous la pluie" (gardens in the rain) describes a garden in the town of Orbec in Normandy during a torrential downpour. Throughout the piece there are sections that evoke the sound of the wind blowing, a thunderstorm raging and raindrops falling. It uses the French folk tunes "Nous n'irons plus aux bois" and "Dodo, l'enfant do."

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According to Maurice Ravel himself, the strange title of the little piano piece composed in 1899, "Pavane pour une infante défunte" , should not be attributed too much importance. He chose it mainly because he liked the alliteration it contained. At the same time, he agreed that the music evokes "a pavane that a little princess might once have danced at the Spanish court". After its premiere in 1902, the simple but effective piece achieved unprecedented popularity, not least reflected in the many arrangements made of it, one of which is on tonight's programme.

Cesar Franck 's sonata in A major was written in 1886, when César Franck was 63, as a wedding present to the 28-year-old violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. Twenty-eight years earlier, in 1858, Franck had promised a violin sonata for Cosima von Bülow. This never materialized and it has been speculated whether the work Franck had done on this was put aside and eventually ended up in the sonata he wrote for Ysaÿe in 1886. The work has four movements and is among the most important works in the literature for piano and violin.

(The texts are free reproductions of information available on the internet)

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ABOUT THE MUSICIANS:

Yejin Gil is an outstanding, award-winning pianist. She combines technical brilliance with musical depth in her uncompromising pursuit of artistic authenticity and is equally well versed in the classical and romantic repertoire as well as in works from the 20th and 21st centuries. Her brilliant debut CD with works by Chin, Ligeti, Boulez and Messiaen won the 2014 "Coup de Coeur" of the Académie Charles Cros and her 2017 Scriabin album was nominated for the German Record Critics Award and the International Classical Music Awards.

In recent years, Gil has collaborated with composers such as Unsuk Chin, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Hurel, Heiner Goebbels, Helmut Oehring, Martin Matalon and Oscar Strasnoy and performed with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Hans Rotman, Steven Sloane, Alexander Merzyn and Joseph Bousso.

She has had soloist assignments with orchestras such as the Hamburg Philharmonic, Bochumer Symphoniker, MDR Synfonieorchester, Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus, Berliner Symphoniker and Staatskapelle Halle, Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Court-Circuit and Zafraan Ensemble.

Among the musicians she performs with are Jörg Widmann, David Adorjan, Matthias Schorn, Jan Bjøranger, Nora Chastain, Lars Anders Tomter, Torleif Thedéen, Martin Löhr, Øyvind Gimse and Martin Funda.

In 2014 she was "Artist in Residence" at the Impuls festival in Brussels, Berlin, Magdeburg and Halle where she performed, among other things, Bernstein's piano concerto "The Age of Anxiety", a performance that was broadcast live on MDR. At the end of 2015, her second CD was released with a pure Mussorgsky program.

Yejin Gil has had soloist roles at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Thüringer Bachwochen, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Kasseler Musiktage, IFCP Festival New York, Frontiers Plus Birmingham, Young Euro Classic Berlin, International Piano Festival La Roque d'Anthéron, Acanthes Festival Metz, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Stavanger chamber music festival and Virtuoso & belcanto festival in Lucca on stages such as Grand Théâtre de Genève, Essen Philharmonie, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Salle Cortot Paris, Weimarhalle, Konzerthaus Berlin and Seoul Arts Centre.

She regularly gives seminars and masterclasses in Germany, the USA, Great Britain, France and Italy and is active as a jury member at international piano competitions.

Yejin Gil graduated from Seoul National University and Folkwang Art University in Essen with a number of distinctions.

She is also a prize winner at several international competitions, including Korea National Competition (first prize), Köhler-Osbahr-Wettbewerb (first prize) and Orléans Concours International (winner and only finalist with four main prizes: Prix Nadia Boulanger, Prix Albert Roussel, Prix Sacem, Prix Hitachi and special prize for best interpretation of the Philippe Hurels piece "Interstices").

Yejin Gil lives and works in Berlin.

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Jan Bjøranger belongs in the ranks among Europe's leading violinists and ensemble leaders.

As founder and artistic director of the renowned and award-winning orchestra 1B1, where the focus is on making classical music accessible to a wide audience, he has contributed to establishing new standards for ensemble and orchestral playing. In that context, Vanity Fair refers to 1B1 as "one of the seven most important ensembles on the classical scene today"

The recordings of Grieg's Suite from Holberg's time, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in collaboration with Lars Anders Tomter, are referred to by the German and Austrian press as reference recordings. The Grieg recording was also awarded with the Spellemannspris in 2014.

In addition to 1B1, Jan Bjøranger has led a number of other prominent ensembles, including Camerata Salzburg, Denmark's Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Trondheim Solistene.

In collaboration with musicians such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Iona Brown, Yejin Gil, Christian Ihle Hadland, Benjamin Schmid, Clemens Hagen, Mariss Jansons, Phillippe Herreweghe and Kristjan Järvi, Bjøranger has toured all over the world and played in halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Große Musikvereinsaal in Vienna and Royal Albert Hall in London.

Of composer collaborations, projects with Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Piers Hellawell, Gija Kancheli, James MacMillan, Daniel Schnyder, Mark Anthony Turnage Hafli∂i Hallgrimsson and Rolf Wallin can be mentioned in particular

Jan Bjøranger is passionate about education and has taught most of his life. He is a coach for conductors at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and also leads the preparations for orchestral productions at the same institution. He is also the assistant artistic director of the Virtuoso & Belcanto festival in Lucca, Tuscany since 2016 and gives regular master classes all over the world.

Jan Bjøranger plays a Domenicus Montagnana violin from 1725 and is represented by Andreas Richter Cultural Consulting GmbH, Berlin

Jan Bjøranger lives and works in Berlin