Orchestre de chambre d’Europe

Antonio Pappano conducts the wonderful Orchestre
Orchestre de chambre d'Europe in a programme celebrating the marriage of jazz and classical music, with Bertrand Chamayou, one of the Dijon Opera's most loyal performers.

Following in the footsteps of Stravinsky's Rite of the Rite, it was in 1923 that Darius Milhaud, also inspired by the painter Fernand Léger and his African references, composed his Creation of the World: the force of a pagan mythology, under the influence of New Orleans jazz, is carried by percussion, piano and saxophone. A decade later, Gershwin took the piano melody of I Got Rhythm and grafted it with a series of virtuoso variations, the sophisticated mood of which - of course! - The sophisticated mood is, of course, all about rhythm. Another decade later, Bernstein celebrated dance, against a backdrop of sailors on the town in New York, in his ballet Fancy Free, which was to serve as the basis for the musical On the Town.
for the musical On the Town. And as the jewel in the crown, nothing sparkles better than Ravel's admirable Concerto in G, whose Adagio opens with one of the most beautiful melodies ever written. This is a soulful score, in which the influence of jazz, perceptible in the syncopated rhythms and certain almost Gershwinnian accents, blends subtly with the modesty and classicism of Ravel, whose 150th birthday will be celebrated in 2025.