The RSNO, with Stéphane Denève, in 2005

The so-called ‘Auld Alliance’ between Scotland and France was musically rekindled in October 2003, when Stéphane Denève made his Scottish debut, guest conducting a programme of Ravel’s Mother Goose, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No1 and Dvořák’s Symphony No8 (a particular favourite with Scottish audiences). Impressed and intrigued by this new presence on the podium, the RSNO immediately invited Denève back for the  following season, in the meantime squeezing in a performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique during its summer Scottish Proms. Within two months the Royal Scottish National Orchestra had secured its man, and Stéphane Denève was appointed as Music Director from the 2005-06 season.

The RSNO was formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra and has had a long and proud history as Scotland’s national orchestra. Well-known names to have conducted the RSNO have included Felix Weingartner, Serge Koussevitzky and even the composer Richard Strauss. Denève followed in a long line of illustrious RSNO Principal Conductors including Georg Szell, Walter Süsskind, Sir John Barbirolli, Walter Weller and Neeme Järvi and was the orchestra’s first conductor to be given the ‘Music Director’ title since the late Sir Alexander Gibson.

As national orchestra, the RSNO has a unique schedule of concerts. A typical week for Denève and the musicians might include a midweek concert in the north of the country (Aberdeen, Dundee or Inverness), a Friday evening at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, and a Saturday evening performance at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. But that’s not all – since Denève’s arrival in Scotland he has participated in all aspects of the orchestra’s life, conducting children’s concerts in small venues across the towns and villages of the nation, recording sessions, rush-hour concerts, free lunchtime events, chamber concerts, new audience development projects and much more.

Performing in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Symbolic of his commitment to his new orchestra, and its huge range of activities, Stéphane Denève made the decision to leave France and make his home in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, with his then-girlfriend, Åsa.

– Stéphane Denève

In the years that have followed, Stéphane Denève has taken the orchestra around Scotland and Europe, with annual performances at the Edinburgh International Festival and frequent appearances at the BBC Proms in London. He earned the orchestra its first invitation to the St Magnus Festival, Orkney and to the Festival Présences, Paris.

Denève and the RSNO have toured extensively in Europe, including in Spain (with Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti) and across central Europe (with violinist Hilary Hahn). Venues have included the celebrated Vienna Konzerthaus, Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

In January 2010 the RSNO made its debut in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, peforming Fauré’s Requiem. For this special performance, Denève and the orchestra were joined by the RSNO Chorus and Junior Chorus, and soloists Lisa Milne (soprano) and Christopher Maltman (baritone).

The RSNO receive a standing ovation at the Concertgebouw, Netherlands, January 2010

– Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman

Guillaume Connesson

Stéphane Denève’s first week of concerts in September 2005 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra took a programme featuring Ravel’s Suite No 2 from Daphnis et Chloé and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 Choral to Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The program began with a new work, commissioned by the RSNO, dedicated to Stéphane Denève, by French composer Guillaume Connesson. With these performances of Connesson’s  Une lueur dans l’âge sombre (A Glimmer in the Age of Darkness), Denève introduced Scottish audiences to a new and relatively unknown composer whose music they would soon grow to love.

with Guillaume Connesson, in front of Edinburgh Castle, 2005

It was not the first time, however, that Denève had championed the music of his fellow countryman, Connesson. Some years previously, Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.) asked Stéphane Denève to present a piece by a living French composer, suggesting a couple of familiar names. Denève had the idea to search out a brand new name, someone who would benefit from the publicity that a US première would garner. A huge response from French music publishers yielded nothing that grabbed Denève’s attention. And then Supernova arrived – a work by the 30-year old Paris-based composer Guillaume Connesson – a name unfamiliar to Denève. The concerts were a huge success with audiences, musicians and critics alike, and it marked the start of a hugely successful musical partnership – and friendship – between conductor and composer.

The RSNO’s 2005 commission Une lueur dans l’âge sombre was written as a natural follow-up to Supernova. As Connesson explained, ‘I felt the need to compose a new score that counterbalanced the freed energies of Supernova. With Une lueur we find ourselves 400,000 years after the Big Bang’.

In Guillaume Connesson’s mind, these two symphonic poems would only be complete with a third piece, creating a three-part lyric symphony: The Cosmic Trilogy. And so, the RSNO commissioned Aleph, in 2007, premiered by Stéphane Denève and the RSNO in September 2007, for the opening of the orchestra’s new 2007-08 season. The work was dedicated to Stéphane and Åsa Denève as a wedding present.

Since 2005, symphonic poems from the Cosmic Trilogy have been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the MDR Leipzig, the New World Symphony, and the orchestras of Toronto, Dallas, Cincinnati, Houston, St Louis and others.

From L to R: Guillaume Connesson, Stéphane Denève, Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Click to find out more about this recording

The Denève-RSNO-Connesson musical partnership reached a new height in 2009, with the commissioning of another new work from the composer, a Piano Concerto, entitled The Shining One. It was premièred by the orchestra and Denève in March 2009, at the RSNO’s Springtime in Paris Festival, with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The enthusiastic audience feedback from these concerts is testament to the skill and immediacy of Connesson’s music and to what can be achieved when a conductor and orchestra work together to champion a contemporary classical composer:

That audience member’s wish was in fulfilled in 2009, when Denève and the RSNO did record The Shining One and the Cosmic Trilogy. Click here for more details.

TEN out of 10

Ten years after unearthing Connesson’s Supernova in a search for new music, Stéphane Denève launched another appeal. This time he sought not one but TEN orchestral works – ten pieces of music from the first decade of this century that would, in his opinion, ‘truly stand the test of time’.

After consulting with colleagues, conductors, musicians, publishers and friends, Stéphane selected ten works and programmed them into the RSNO 2010-11 season, accompanied by an extensive promotional and audience engagement campaign.

In the following video, Stéphane introduces music journalist Edward Seckerson to the ‘TEN out of 10’ concept:

Stéphane recorded short videos for all ten of the pieces of music. You can watch them here.

promotional photo for the RSNO’s Classic Bites concert

Perhaps the biggest impact of Stéphane Denève’s time in Scotland with the RSNO has been on the audiences for classical music. From his very first concert with the orchestra, Denève was concerned not only with the musical performances themselves but also with the concert hall experience as a whole. Michael Tumelty, classical music critic for The Herald wrote in 2006, “…the young French conductor is already hard at work establishing a whole new rapport between the RSNO’s principal conductor and his audience. His pre-concert chats from the stage have already become a minor culture in their own right.”

celebrating a birthday with one of the RSNO’s most loyal supporters, the late Constance Freeland

Very quickly a trust and loyalty was established between conductor and audience, which enabled Denève to take RSNO audiences on a musical journey, a journey that took in contemporary music (including Scotland’s James MacMillan, France’s Guillaume Connesson, Fabien Waksman and many others), less familiar French repertoire (Roussel, Poulenc, Dukas, Schmitt) and major projects such as Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Grieg’s Complete Incidental Music to Peer Gynt and so on. It is testament to Stéphane Denève’s ability to connect with audiences, not only through the music but also through programme notes and personal on-stage introductions laced with Gallic humour and charm, that audiences grew dramatically in size through this period.

Whether it has been ‘rush-hour’ concerts at 6pm to attract shoppers and commuters, or a new series designed to introduce newcomers to orchestral masterworks (Naked Classics), Denève and the RSNO have never been afraid of experimenting with traditional formats. With Classic Bites, Stéphane introduced potential audiences to highlights from the concert season in short, digestible movements.

Springtime in Paris – with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

During 2009’s Springtime in Paris festival, Denève used video, presentations and staging to enhance the musical experience. He even went as far as to re-create the Paris salon of the 19th Century, joining Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the keyboard to peform a series of French piano duets.

Michael Tumelty had the following report on the Springtime in Paris concert:

Stéphane with three budding conductors at the RSNO’s concerts for nursery children (ages 3-5)

The RSNO’s statistics prove what is obvious to anyone attending an RSNO concert: During Stéphane Denève’s time with the RSNO audience numbers have increased year-on-year, with subscriptions in Glasgow doubling, and even trebling in Edinburgh. In addition, over 3,000 under 26-year-olds are now regular attendees and thousands of under-16s hear the orchestra every year through free ticket schemes and concerts for schools and families.

Stéphane Denève’s contribution to Scottish musical life has not gone unrecognised. He is an official music ambassador for Glasgow (alongside the composer Craig Armstrong, comedian and musician Billy Connolly and rock musician Alex Kapranos).

Denève holds honorary degrees from both Glasgow University (Doctor of Music) and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (Doctor of Letters), in recognition of his artistic achievements and contribution to the musical life of Scotland. The following short (8 minutes) video shows Stéphane Denève receiving his doctorate from Glasgow University in November 2011 and includes an informative and entertaining appraisal of his musical life:

Stéphane Denève has devoted much of his conducting career to promoting and celebrating the music of his countryman, Albert Roussel. With the RSNO he has conducted one of Roussel’s symphonies or ballet works in every season and the partnership recently completed the final volume of their acclaimed five CD survey of Roussel’s orchestral works.

Jeremy Siepmann explores the reasons for this composer-conductor connection in his article, Breaking the Mould (www.naxos.com):

Denève even studied at the Conservatoire in the northern French city of Tourcoing – the city of Roussel’s birth.

He describes to Siepmann how Roussel came to become a significant musical force in his life:

He suggests why Roussel has not received the same attention as his peers, Debussy and Ravel:

(the extracts above are from Breaking the Mould by Jeremy Siepmann – www.naxos.com)

Click to access Naxos_Key_Release_Kit_01.2012_STEPHANE-DENEVE-1.pdf

Concerts

Click below to display all Stéphane Denève’s concerts with the RSNO since January 2006:

Only an “au revoir”…

Stéphane wearing an auld-alliance Tartan kilt

C’est la vie, time flies and seven seasons with the RSNO and with you have passed by so quickly…Trying to summarise so many concerts, so many emotions, so many musical adventures, so many friendships, makes me speechless – which is very rare, as you know!

Only a great array, a rainbow of “MERCI” comes to my mind:

Merci to the music for bringing people together, inspiring us, helping and enriching our lives.

Merci to all the musicians, the singers of our choruses, the staff, present and past, of our wonderful RSNO for their talent, dedication, warmth and above all their passion for music.

Merci to each of YOU individually, our loyal RSNO audience, for sharing your love of music, for your enthusiasm, your applause and your encouragement.

Merci to all our active supporters, the Circle members and donors, and our corporate partners, for their continuous help, energy and generosity.

Merci to all the RSNO Board members, to our First Minister, Culture Minister, Lord Provost, and various executives and cultural institution directors for their support, for sharing our visions and allowing our dreams to happen.

Merci to the teams at each concert hall, for helping to make every concert special.

Merci to all the many journalists, reviewers, interviewers, bloggers and broadcasters for your help in promoting and also questioning our work.´

Merci to my dear wife Åsa and our Scottish daughter Alma for making me a proud father and husband, for offering me a life that I never thought could be so rich and joyful.

Merci to the Scottish weather for helping me study my scores at home indoors!

And, more selfishly, merci to all of you for helping me to discover further who I am, for making me a better artist and a better person…

En toute harmonie, tant musicale qu’amicale, JE VOUS AIME,