The Opéra de Saint-Étienne welcomes a young conductor and composer, Chloé Dufresne, whose name music lovers can remember. At just 30 years old, she has already conducted the Orchester national d'Île-de-France, the Orchester intercontemporain and several prestigious ensembles abroad. The Saint-Etienne evening starts around Mozart. The orchestra plays Hommage à Mozart , a piece by French neoclassical composer Jacques Ibert (1890-1962). After the tribute, the master. Cécilia Lemaître-Sgard, principal clarinet of the orchestra, shines in the Concerto for clarinet, composed by Mozart in October 1791, two months before his death, giving this then recent instrument one of the major references in his repertoire. To a young conductor, a young composer. Chloé Dufresne then conducts a work by Camille Pépin, Laniakea . Holder of five first prizes from the CNSM, Camille Pépin, born in 1990, was named composer of the year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique 2020. Laniakea takes its name from a supercluster of stars, of which the Milky Way is only a tiny part. This journey to infinity begins with a roll of timpani, inspired by Haydn 's Symphony No. 103 . The evening ends with S ymphony No. 3, known as “Rhenish”, by Schumann, composed when the composer arrived in 1850 as conductor of the Düsseldorf orchestra. Like the Pastorale and the Fantastic Symphony , the "Rhenish" Symphony , the last the composer completed, spans five movements as ample as the river that inspired and nourished German romanticism.
