Live From Jones Hall | French Masterworks

THIS PERFORMANCE IS PART OF THE

GOLD C L A S S I C S

LIVESTREAMING OF HOUSTON SYMPHONY CONCERTS IS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Barbara J. Burger

Concertmaster and Max Levine Chair Yoonshin Song is sponsored in part by Gary and Marian Beauchamp and the Beauchamp Foundation The Classical Season is endowed by The Wortham Foundation, Inc., in memory of Gus S. and Lyndall F. Wortham

THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR GENEROUS SEASON SPONSORS

The Classical Season is sponsored by

THE ROBERT CIZIK FAMILY Principal Corporate Guarantor Official Airline

Official Health Care Provider

The Houston Symphony is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Preferred Jewelry Partner

THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR GENEROUS SERIES SPONSORS

Gold Classics

Favorite Masters

RAND G ROUP

Great Performers

POPS Series

Family Series

Donations account for two-thirds of the Houston Symphony’s annual operating budget.

ways to DONATE houstonsymphony.org/donate 713.337.8559 text MUSIC to 41444 and pledge your gift

On Today’s Program C. PÉPIN Avant les clartés de l’aurore TOMASI Fanfares liturgiques I. Annonciation II. Evangile III. Apocalypse (Scherzo) IV. Procession du Vendredi-Saint POULENC Sinfonietta I. Allegro con fuoco II. Molto vivace III. Andante cantabile IV. Finale: Prestissimo et très gai

ABOUT THE MUSIC

C. PÉPIN AVA N T L E S C L A R T É S D E L’ A U R O R E

CAMILLE PÉPIN COMPOSER (b. 1990)

• Born in 1990, French composer Camille Pépin is a celebrated emerging composer. She has received many international prizes and was named Composer of the Year in Victoires de la Musique Classique for her work The Sound of Trees.

• Her music has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Live Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre national de Lyon, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre national de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre national dîle de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen, and Orchestre de Picardie.

• Avant les clartés de l’aurore (Before the Light of Dawn) was premiered by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in 2020. The framework for the piece is a poem

by Alexander Pushkin: “So the moon on the rose/ That the rain still weighs down/ Spreads its mystical glow/ Before the dawn light.”

ABOUT THE MUSIC

TOMASI FA N FA R E S L I T U R G I Q U E S

HENRI TOMASI COMPOSER (1901–1971)

• Tomasi wrote Fanfares liturgiques in 1952 for brass ensemble, timpani, and percussion. This piece was originally part of his opera Don Juan de Mañara.

• Tomasi was influenced by medieval spiritual music, and his fascination with spirituality is evident in these fanfares. The four movements are titled “Annunciation”, “Gospel”, “Apocalypse”, and “Good Friday Procession”.

Listen for the galloping rhythms and high energy in the third movement, evoking the horsemen of the Apocalypse.

• When Tomasi was young, he dreamed of becoming a sailor. However, his parents wanted him to be a musician, so he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire in 1921 and became an established composer and conductor instead.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

POULENC S I N F O N I E T TA

FRANCIS POULENC

COMPOSER (1889–1963) • Poulenc’s Sinfonietta was commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in 1948. This was Poulenc’s only orchestral work.

• For this commission, the BBC specifically requested that he avoid writing anything “heavy,” and this piece has the light, charming, whimsical mood that is typical of Poulenc’s works.

• 1948 was also the year that Poulenc made his first concert tour of the United States, which increased his international reputation.

• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) was born into a wealthy family, and his parents insisted that he study business.

However, when his parents suddenly died when he was 18 and left him a large inheritance, he focused his education solely on composition.

ARTIST BIO FABIEN GABEL CONDUCTOR Hailed as “boldly evocative,” Fabien Gabel is recognized internationally as one of the stars of a new generation of conductors, having established a broad repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to contemporary new works and championing lesser-known works by French composers. His conducting has taken him across the globe to lead top orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Houston Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Seoul Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra D.C., Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Tonkünstler Orchester, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Warsaw Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Orchestre National de France, and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

His 2020–21 season includes debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in addition to returns to the Houston Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Following his successful eight year tenure as Music Director of Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Gabel returns to the orchestra for several programs as Music Advisor. In France he gives concerts with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and appears twice with Orchestre Français des Jeunes, of which he is Music Director.

ARTIST BIO

Gabel has worked with the world’s most formidable soloists including Emanuel Ax, Seong-Jin Cho, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alina Pogostkina, Julian Steckel, Johannes Moser, Antonio Meneses, Marc-André Hamelin, Beatrice Rana, Gautier Capuçon, Simone Lamsma, Xavier de Maistre, and Bertrand Chamayou, and singers such as Anne Sophie Von Otter, Michael Schade, Petra Lang, Jennifer Larmore, Measha Brueggergosman, Danielle de Niese, Natalie Dessay, and MarieNicole Lemieux.

Gabel first attracted international attention in 2004 winning the Donatella Flick competition in London, which subsequently led to his appointment as the LSO’s assistant conductor for two seasons.

Since then, the LSO has engaged him regularly as a guest conductor.

Born in Paris into a family of accomplished musicians, Gabel began studying trumpet at the age of six, honing his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which awarded him a First Prize in trumpet in 1996, and later at the Musik Hochschule of Karlsruhe. He went on to play in several Parisian orchestras under the direction of prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, and Bernard Haitink. In 2002, Fabien Gabel pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has worked as an assistant to Bernard Haitink and Sir Colin Davis. In 2020, Gabel was awarded the rank of Chevalier (Knight) by the Conseil de l’Ordes des Arts et des Lettres, a recognition given by France’s Ministry of Culture.