This preview has been provided by Carolina Performing Arts.
Carolina Performing Arts welcomes conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in a two-night performance of Beethoven’s most famous symphonies. The orchestra kicks off their US tour with performances at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Memorial Hall at 8 p.m. on Nov. 12 and 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 13.
Revered for their passionate live performances of some of the most beloved classical symphonies, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique made its name with its trailblazing performances and recording the complete Beethoven symphonies in 1994.
The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is considered the finest orchestra in the world in interpreting the music of the Romantic era. Their music transports listeners back in time and offers a rare glimpse into how these seminal Beethoven works might have sounded when they premiered in the early 18th century.
The program on Nov. 12 will feature Beethoven’s Overture to Prometheus, Op. 43 with Symphony No. 4 in B-flat, Op. 60 and Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 55, Eroica. On Nov. 13, the program will include Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Op. 84 with Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 and the big finale will be Beethoven’s most famous score, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67.
Symphony No. 5 — with its famous, jolting first notes of three G’s and an E flat — broke expressive ground and overturned many of the formal concepts on which the classical symphony had been based. Beethoven crafted something powerful and universal that reverberates with ageless significance in every listener regardless of their depth of musical culture.
In addition to performing at UNC’s Memorial Hall, the orchestra will be playing Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia as part of their four-city tour of the US.
Tickets for the Nov. 12 and 13 performances are $10 for UNC-Chapel Hill students and start at $25 for general admission. Visit carolinaperformingarts.org to purchase online or call the box office at 919.843.3333.
About The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Founded in 1989 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique’s mission is to bring to the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries the same intensity of expression and stylistic accuracy found with his renown period-instrument chamber ensemble, the English Baroque Soloists.
One of the Orchestra’s outstanding successes has undoubtedly been its acclaimed Berlioz interpretations. This series began with the Symphonie Fantastique, performed and filmed in the former Conservatoire de la Musique in Paris where the very first performance took place in December 1830. In 1993 it gave the first modern performances of the rediscovered Messe Solennelle, and ten years later the group performed L’enfance du Christ at the Proms and the first complete performances of Les Troyens at the Châtelet in Paris.
The ORR has won plaudits for its complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies, and made critically acclaimed recordings of the Schumann symphonies as well as music by Verdi, Weber and Mendelssohn. In 2003 the Orchestra took part in a highly successful dramatisation of the writing of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony for BBC television.
From 2006 to 2008, with the Monteverdi Choir and John Eliot Gardiner, the ORR took part in a mammoth “Brahms: Roots and Memories” project, performing Brahms’ music along with works by other composers which might have inspired him. Much of this project was recorded by the ensembles’ dedicated record label, Soli Deo Gloria (SDG).
The Orchestra and John Eliot Gardiner are currently involved in an exciting 5-year collaboration with the Opéra Comique in Paris. Since 2007 they have performed in fully-staged opera performances of Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Etoile (2007), Bizet’s Carmen (2009) and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (2010).
About Sir John Eliot Gardiner
One of the most versatile conductors of our time, Sir John Eliot Gardiner is acknowledged as a key figure in the early music revival. He is the founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Alongside the activities with his own ensembles, Sir John appears regularly as guest conductor with the most important European symphony orchestras, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras and the London Symphony Orchestra.
The extent of Gardiner’s repertoire is illustrated by over 250 recordings made for major European companies, which have received numerous international awards. Most recently, he has been releasing recordings of the 2000 Bach Cantata Pilgrimage and of Brahms symphonies on his record label, Soli Deo Gloria.
His most recent projects with the Monteverdi ensembles include European tours of Monteverdi’s Vespers (1610), Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Haydn’s oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. He is currently continuing a five-year collaboration with the Opéra Comique in Paris, along with the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Away from his own ensembles, John Eliot Gardiner is involved in a three-year Beethoven cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra. Future engagements include re-invitations to Covent Garden, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and the Czech Philharmonic.
In 1987 John Eliot Gardiner received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lyon. He was nominated Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996, and Chevalier de la Légion d‘Honneur in 2010. In 1992 he became an Honorary Fellow of both King’s College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music. He received a knighthood in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In 2008 he was he was awarded the Royal Academy of Music/ Kohn Foundation’s prestigious Bach Prize.
