About the Concert

Steeply uphill and just as steeply downhill again: Béla Bartók's career had begun as a celebrated child prodigy, but when he had to go to America, it ended almost abruptly. He was seriously ill in hospital in New ork in 1943 when he was commissioned to compose a major work for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps he suspected that it would be his last work. In any case, he devoted all his remaining energy to it, creating a concerto for orchestra as demanding as it was overwhelming. Actually a symphony in five movements, it combines everything for which Bartók is so beloved: rhythm, drive, the most beautiful tone colors and many musical ideas.
Our artist in residence also loves originality and novelty. For this concert, Gautier Capuçon has chosen the Second Cello Concerto by Lera Auerbach. With the title "Notes of a Madman", Auerbach refers to a story by the Russian Nikolai Gogol - as so often with her, an invitation to the audience to be inspired...