3 Questions to François-Xavier Roth
Planing Subscription concert No 1, what were your criteria arranging the Suite from the opera Platée?
It was important to me that there should be a good balance between the movements: calm movements alternate with animated ones. It gives me great pleasure that we are performing Rameau together for the first time. In France, Jean-Philippe Rameau is our Bach. He was an innovator in orchestral music, and he created scores that are highly complex harmonically.
You premiered the cello concerto by Matthias Pintscher with Alisa Weilerstein in Boston in March 2017. What memories do you retain from that experience?
March 2017 was the very first time I’d conducted music by Matthias Pintscher, and it was very moving for me. He has mastered the art of composing for large symphony orchestra in a very ingenious way. His music is challenging, differentiated, very rich in different facets of sound; you could say it’s effervescent like a good minerally wine. It’s a great joy for me to play the concerto again! I feel very strongly about premiering new works, but equally we would like to contribute to new pieces becoming established in a symphony orchestra’s repertoire. That’s why it gives me considerable pleasure to present the cello concerto to the audience in Cologne on three consecutive days.
What is the link between Rameau, Pintscher and Mozart?
Jupiter meets Platée, that makes sense! On this programme we combine old French Baroque music with avantgarde music, and there’s this incredible masterpiece by Mozart in between them chronologically. All three composers have a particular liking for timbres and harmonies, and their music is characterised by a special transparency. Together, these three composers produce a beautiful bouquet!
François-Xavier Roth conducts
Subscription 1
