Yan Pascal Tortelier and the London Symphony Orchestra perform Ravel and Debussy with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham

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11 June 2009, 7.30pm, Barbican

14 June 2009, 7.30pm, Barbican - CANCELLED

RAVEL Ma mère l’oye (complete ballet)
RAVEL Shéhérazade
DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après d’un faune
DEBUSSY La Mer

Yan Pascal Tortelier conductor
Susan Graham mezzo-soprano (pictured)

Due to unforeseen circumstances Bernard Haitink will be unable to commit to the scheduled concerts with the LSO on the 11 & 14 June 2009. However, the LSO are pleased to announce that the internationally renowned conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier will be joining them for the performance on 11 June 2009. Regrettably the concert on the 14 June 2009 has been cancelled.

Ravel’s ballet drawing on five of Mother Goose’s fairy tales (1911) is endlessly inventive, while another celebrated storyteller is evoked in the rapturous song-cycle Shéhérazade (1904), about the heroine-narrator of the Arabian Nights. Of the two works by Debussy, Pierre Boulez has described his delicately erotic prelude (1894) as the first piece of modern music. No less radical is La mer (1905), a symphonic portrait of the sea which is heady with the ocean’s light and shifting moods.

Susan Graham, one of today's foremost opera stars, is a versatile and compelling singing actress with a devoted international audience. A dedicated Francophile and expert in French music, decorated by the French government as a ‘Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ Ms. Graham devotes her current season almost exclusively to French repertoire.

Yan Pascal Tortelier, who now conducts the LSO for this performance, has worked with some of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Filarmonica della Scala Milan and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In recognition of his outstanding work as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic between 1992 and 2003, Tortelier was given the title of the Conductor Laureate. In March this year Tortelier took up the position of the Principal Conductor for the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. Throughout his career Tortelier has enjoyed much critical success, as the Times wrote: “The panache with which his conducting fuses dramatic intensity with great clarity marks him out as a musician.”

Free pre-concert performance: Guildhall Artists at the Barbican
11 June 2009, 6pm, Barbican Hall
Guildhall School pianist Diana Ionescu performs Preludes by Debussy

Tickets to Barbican concerts: £7 - £32
Secure online booking at lso.co.uk (£1.50 booking fee)
Box office: 020 7638 8891 open Mon-Sat 9am – 8pm, Sun 11am-8pm (£2.50 booking fee)
In person at the Advance Box Office in the Barbican centre
(Mon-Sat 9am – 9pm; Sun 12pm – 9pm)

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