Page 40 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Saëns and Chopin) to Marie Jaëll (a pianist who studied with Franck, Saint-Saëns
and Widor). Palazzetto Bru Zane are determined to encourage a revival of these

long-neglected writers.

Among the works on the programme is Fausto by Louise Bertin, taking after

Goethe’s Faust and first seen in Paris in 1831. Bertin is well worth further
exploration; she penned her first opera aged twenty (to her own libretto), and at 22

was collaborating with Eugène Scribe on a piece staged at the Opéra Comique. She
did all this despite being partially paralysed from birth, and facing significant

patriarchal opposition to her pursuit of a career as a composer. The struggle
continues though, given the notable lack of recordings of many of these composers;

Mel Bonis is one of the few lesser-known names to at least be represented several
times on record. Cue this gem of an album from DONNE Ambassador, Antonio
Oyarzabal.

Mel Bonis – Desdémona

Antonio Oyarzabal pno

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The stars are out in force for the BSO’s latest season, with appearances from Lang
Lang, Yuja Wang, Nicola Benedetti (in her BSO debut) and Midori (twenty years on

from her last collaboration with the ensemble).

A civil rights activist and gospel music are at the heart of The Passion of Octavius
Catto; it tells the tale of a campaigner with a noted talent for baseball, who helped

achieve the abolition of slavery in America but was murdered as he tried to exercise
his right to vote on election day in 1871.The music is by jazz pianist and composer
Uri Caine, who originally scored the piece for jazz trio, chamber orchestra and

gospel choir; it’s a Passion for the modern age. Indeed, Caine is a fascinating figure
of musical crossover and dialogue; he studied with George Rochberg and George

Crumb, worked in a group led by John Zorn, and in 1997 released a memorable jazz
reworking of Mahler.

Mahler / Uri Caine – Symphony No 5: Funeral March

Uri Caine Ensemble / Uri Caine pno