The Concert

Debussy’s impressionistic colours give way to Ravel’s dazzling concerto and wild, untamed waltz; Lutosławski exhilarates in his Concerto for Orchestra.

The Music

Debussy’s 1894 impressionistic musical canvas was a turning-point in music. Beginning with a seductive solo flute, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune languidly blends and blurs harmonies in its depiction of a faun on a hazy afternoon.

No less inventive, Ravel’s Piano Concerto and La valse blend graceful classical restraint with contemporary, jazz-flavoured flamboyance, while Lutosławski channels Bartók in an exciting orchestral work of freshness and vibrancy.

The Performers

French conductor Alexandre Bloch – winner of the 2012 Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition – brings a Gallic sensibility to this sensational programme, and is joined by an acclaimed veteran of the Ravel Concerto, pianist Alice Sara Ott.

A succession of scenes through which the faun’s desires and dreams unfold in the heat of the afternoon.
Claude Debussy describes his Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune