HOUSTON (Feb. 24, 2017) – Fabien Gabel, music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, will lead the Houston Symphony and Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter during Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique at 8 p.m. March 9 and 11 and 2:30 p.m. March 12. The program will include Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides and Piano Concerto No. 1 and will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6.
The program begins with Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides, a concert overture inspired by the composer’s visit to Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish island of Staffa. The Hebrides is different from a standard overture that precedes a musical work in that it’s a standalone musical selection and it has become part of the standard orchestral repertoire. The 10-minute work is comprised of a lyrical theme that suggests the power and beauty of Fingal’s Cave.
Following the overture, pianist Ingrid Fliter joins the orchestra for Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Continuing on the theme of compositions inspired during travel, Mendelssohn composed the concerto during a visit to Italy after meeting a pianist in Munich. Fliter is the only female to have won the Gilmore Artist Award, which recognizes extraordinary piano artistry. She now divides her time between North America and Europe and maintains a busy performing schedule with orchestras worldwide.
The program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s final masterpiece, Symphony No. 6 – also known as Pathétique – which premiered nine days before the composer’s sudden death. The work is deeply personal to the composer’s life and upon completion, he wrote, “I believe it comes into being as the best of my works.”
The concert will take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston’s Theater District. For tickets and information, please call (713) 224-7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.
Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique
- Thursday, March 9, 2017, at 8 p.m.
- Saturday, March 11, 2017, at 8 p.m.
- Sunday, March 12, 2017, at 2:30 p.m.
Fabien Gabel Conductor
Ingrid Fliter Piano
Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave)
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Pathétique
Tickets from $25
About Fabien Gabel
Recognized internationally as one of the stars of the new generation, Fabien Gabel is a regular guest conductor of major orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia. He has been music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra since 2013. In this season and next, he makes return engagements with many of the world’s leading orchestras from Seoul to Salzburg. He will also conduct Hamlet at the Lausanne Opera. Orchestras he has guest conducted include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg, Staatskappelle Dresden, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic and Orchestra dell’Accademia Santa Cecilia di Roma.
Fabien Gabel has worked with soloists, including Emanuel Ax, Radu Lupu, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alina Pogostkina, Julian Steckel, Johannes Moser, Antônio Meneses, Marc-André Hamelin, Beatrice Rana, Gautier Capuçon, Simone Lamsma, Xavier de Maistre, Jennifer Larmore, Measha Bruggergosman, Danielle de Niese, Natalie Dessay and Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Fabien first attracted international attention in 2004 when he won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, which subsequently led to his appointment as the London Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor for the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons. Since then, the LSO has engaged him regularly as a guest conductor.
He made his professional conducting debut in 2003 with the Orchestre National de France and has since returned frequently. He now regularly conducts this orchestra in subscription concerts in Paris and recently recorded a French opera aria CD with the orchestra and mezzo Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Naïve). Born in Paris and a member of a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien Gabel began studying trumpet at age 6, 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 Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. He went on to play in various 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 pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has studied with Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis and Paavo Järvi.
About Ingrid Fliter
Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter has won the admiration and hearts of audiences around the world for her passionate, thoughtful and sensitive music making. Winner of the 2006 Gilmore Artist Award, she is one of only a handful of pianists and the only woman to have received this honor. She divides her time between North America and Europe. Ingrid made her American orchestral debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra just days after winning the Gilmore award. Since then she has appeared with the country’s leading orchestras and music festivals and was the featured soloist on the Youth Orchestra of the Americas 2015 Canadian tour. As a recitalist, she has performed in prestigious venues in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Vancouver and Detroit, as well as for the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth.
In Europe and Asia, Ingrid has performed in recital and with leading orchestras and music festivals. Born in Buenos Aires in 1973, Ingrid Fliter began her piano studies in Argentina. In 1992, she moved to Europe. She began playing public recitals at age 11 and made her professional orchestra debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires at age 16. Already the winner of several Argentine competitions, she won prizes at the Città di Cantu International Piano and Orchestra Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy, and in 2000, was awarded the silver medal at the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. She has been teaching at the Imola International Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” since 2015.
Ingrid recorded both Chopin concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Jun Märkl, and the complete Chopin Preludes (Linn Records). Her two all-Chopin recordings (EMI) earned her the reputation as one of the pre-eminent interpreters of that composer while her most recent EMI recording is an all-Beethoven CD. Live recordings of works by Beethoven and Chopin at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as well as a DVD of a recital at the Miami International Piano Festival are available on VAI Audio. Her most recent recording features the first Mendelssohn and Schumann concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Linn Records).