Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts Barenboim’s 7th Subscription Concert

The program of the concert remains unchanged, with the premiere of Benjamin Attahir's LAYAL for violin and orchestra commissioned by the Daniel Barenboim Foundation and with Renaud Capuçon as soloist.

PRÉLUDE À L'APRÈS-MIDI D'UN FAUNE and PETRUSCHKA are works by two composers who were very much concerned with the renewal of music at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century: Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.

Renaud Capuçon

Composer Benjamin Attahir says, “Renaud Capuçon's style of playing is of a rare quality; combining the utmost refinement and an immense sensitivity with an intimate and deep understanding of the music he is performing. It is a chance for us as composers to have such a herald. I had the pleasure of having my first musical encounter with this artist at the Villa Medici during my residency. It was immediately obvious both in his work style - so simple and easy - and in his all-embracing humanity. From one project to the next, we have been able to forge a real bond and an extremely solid trust; I am truly grateful to him. For LAYAL, I wanted to base this composition on the sinfonia concertante model. Indeed, the violin that is part of the action can lead just as well as it can follow, it can give impetus or it can comment on what is happening all around. This is a fundamental difference to my usual approach to the genre; where everything comes from the soloist. Here we are faced with a form based on little more than two or three musical elements opening onto nocturnal sound spaces. Layal means "nights" in Arabic, which - beyond the general color of the piece - echoes the name of another talented violinist to whom the work pays a very modest homage, the great Isaac Stern.”

Benjamin Attahir

Benjamin Attahir, born in Toulouse in 1989, first learned to play the violin before he became enthusiastic about composing. He studied composition with Édith Canat de Chizy, and later with Marc-André Dalbavie and Gérard Pesson. Pierre Boulez was one of his teachers at the Lucerne Festival Academy. At the same time, he continued his violin training with Ami Flammer and performed with the Jersey Chamber Orchestra and the Ensemble intercontemporain, among others. His compositions, which are regularly performed by ensembles such as the Orchester National de France, the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble intercontemporain, often combine European and Arabic influences and traditions - as does the piano concerto Al Fajr, released in 2018 premiered by Daniel Barenboim and the Boulez Ensemble to open the second season in the Pierre Boulez Saal. In addition, Benjamin Attahir's catalog of works includes the opera Le Silence des ombres, which premiered in 2019 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, the double concerto Je / suis / Ju / dith for soprano and violin, premiered by Renaud Capuçon, Raquel Camarinha and the Orchester national du Capitole du Toulouse, and the string octet Jawb, which was commissioned by the Daniel Barenboim Foundation for Michael Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble in 2020 and was also heard in the Pierre Boulez Saal in May 2021.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Energy, elegance and esprit characterize Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician. He has served as chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (2014 to 2021), music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (2014 to 2022), and chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2020 to 2022). Andrés Orozco-Estrada regularly conducts Europe's leading orchestras, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Concertgebouworkest and the Orchester National de France, as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He conducted successful concerts and opera performances at the Berlin and Vienna State Opera and at the Salzburg Festival. Upcoming guest conductorships with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. His CD releases with Pentatone attracted a great deal of attention: with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra he made recordings of Stravinsky's "Firebird" and "Sacre du printemps" as well as concert recordings of Strauss' "Salome" and "Elektra". Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education by playing the violin. At the age of 15 he received his first conducting lessons. In 1997 he went to study in Vienna, where he was admitted to the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Orozco-Estrada will take on a professorship for orchestra conducting there in the winter semester of 2022.