- PVS Classical Series program includes music by Mel Bonis, Anders Hillborg, Richard Strauss, and Florent Schmitt
- April 23 concert will be webcast for free at dso.org and on Facebook as part of DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series
Detroit, (April 13, 2022) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) will welcome French conductor Fabien Gabel to Orchestra Hall on April 22-23 for two concerts on the PVS Classical Series featuring music inspired by the biblical Salome’s dance before Herod. Gabel will be joined by German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, who is the featured soloist in Anders Hillborg’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. Evoking the French-infused programs of the DSO's former Music Director Paul Paray, the program also includes Mel Bonis’s Salomé, Florent Schmitt’s La Tragedie de Salomé, and Richard Strauss’s "Salome's Dance” from Salome, a thrilling excerpt from Strauss’s opera based on the play by Oscar Wilde.
“It seems to me that the story relates to lust – to the ‘forbidden’ – which is what shocked people,” said Gabel. “Oscar Wilde’s play was deemed ‘pornographic’ in its time. Irresistible to musicians, the music they created was precisely to defy the prohibitions — to provoke — with such a subject.” Click here to learn more about the program on the DSO’s blog.
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Salome’s Seduction will take place Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 23 at 8 p.m. at Orchestra Hall.
The April 23 performance will also be webcast for free at dso.org and via Facebook Live as part of the DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series.
Tickets for these performances start at $15 and can be purchased at dso.org or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111, open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The title sponsor of the DSO’s Classical Series is PVS Chemicals, Inc. DSO Live is presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Digital programming is produced from the Al Glancy Control Room. The William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series is made possible by a generous grant from the William Davidson Foundation. WRCJ 90.9 FM also supports the series.
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PVS Classical Series
Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 23 at 8 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Fabien Gabel, conductor
Nicolas Altstaedt, cello
Seductive and persuading, Salome's dance before Herod appears in depictions across all art forms, ranging from medieval artists to Rita Hayworth. Conductor Fabien Gabel returns to lead the DSO in a program of musical gems inspired by an original femme fatale, evoking the French-infused programs of the DSO's former Music Director Paul Paray.
MEL BONIS Salomé, Op. 100
ANDERS HILLBORG Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (US Premiere)
RICHARD STRAUSS "Salome's Dance" from Salome, Op. 54
FLORENT SCHMITT La Tragedie de Salomé, Op. 50
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About Fabien Gabel
Fabien Gabel has established an international career of the highest caliber, appearing with orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln Cologne, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his dynamic style and sensitive approach to the score, he is best known for his eclectic choice of repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to new music to championing lesser-known composers of the 19th and the 20th centuries.
Gabel begins the 2021-22 season giving the season opening concerts of the Tonkünstler-Orchester in Vienna. Other highlights of the season include his debuts with NDR Radiophilharmonie, Stavanger Symphony, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Malmö Symphony, and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and his return to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where he appears regularly. With the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, he gives the Spanish premiere of the complete version of Tomasi’s trumpet concerto with Håkan Hardenberger. In North America, he continues his established relationships with orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Detroit Symphony. He is highly in demand in his native France with Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Capitole de Toulouse, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.
Gabel has performed with soloists such as Yefim Bronfman, Emmanuel Ax, Bertrand Chamayou, Seong-Jin Cho, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gidon Kremer, Augustin Hadelich, Simone Lamsma, Christian Tetzlaff, Gautier Capuçon, Johannes Moser, Håkan Hardenberger, and Emmanuel Pahud, and with singers such as Measha Brueggergosman, Natalie Dessay, Petra Lang, Jennifer Larmore, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Danielle de Niese, and Michael Schade.
Having attracted international attention in 2004 as the winner of the Donatella Flick conducting competition, Gabel was assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2006. He was music director of Orchestre Symphonique de Québec from 2012 to 2021, and Orchestre Francais de Jeunes from 2017 to 2021.
Born in Paris to a family of accomplished musicians, Gabel began playing the trumpet at the age of six and honed his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. He played with various Parisian orchestras under prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, and Bernard Haitink before embarking on his conducting career.
About Nicolas Altstaedt
German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today. As a soloist, conductor, and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporary.
In the 2019-20 season, he was Artist in Residence at the SWR Symphonie Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis and Artist in Fokus at Alte Oper Frankfurt. Other highlights include a tour with B’Rock and René Jacobs, debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Ed Gardner, and the NHK and Yomiuri Symphony at Suntory Hall.
Recent highlights include a residency at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, debuts with European Youth Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, Orchestre National de France with Emmanuel Krivine, Il Giardino Armonico at Grafenegg Festival, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Netherland Philharmonic, and Radio Philharmonic with Edo de Waart at Het Concertgebouw, plus re-invitations to the DSO Berlin with Robin Ticciati, Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani, the BBC Symphony at the Proms, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Cello Concerto. Additionally, he will make recital debuts at BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, and Koerner Hall, and appear in Toronto and on tour throughout Australia.
As a conductor, he regularly works with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and will debut at the SWR Stuttgart, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Orquesta Nacional de Espana. During the 17-18 season, Altstaedt gave the highly acclaimed Finnish Premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto under the baton of the composer at the Helsinki Festival, and was also the Artist in Spotlight at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2010, he gave a critically praised performance of the Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival. Since then, he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, all BBC Orchestras, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Melbourne and New Zealand symphony orchestras with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Francois Xavier Roth, Sir Andrew Davis, Lahav Shani, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrew Manze, Thomas Dausgaard, Thomas Hengelbrock, Giovanni Antonini, and Andrea Marcon.
In 2012, Altstaedt was chosen by Gidon Kremer to succeed him as the new artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, and in 2014 by Ádám Fischer to become the new artistic director of the Haydn Philharmonie, whom he regularly performs with at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Esterházy Festival, and recently on tour in both China and Japan. Altstaedt is the artistic director of the Pfingstfestspiele Ittingen 2019 and 2023.
As a chamber musician, Altstaedt’s partners include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Christian Tetzlaff, Pekka Kuusisto, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Alexander Lonquich, Jonathan Cohen, Jean Rondeau, and the Quatuor Ébène. He performs at both Salzburg Mozart and Summer Festival, Verbier, Utrecht, BBC Proms, Lucerne, Musikfest Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, and Rheingau. Altstaedt has performed and worked with composers including Thomas Ades, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Larcher, Fazil Say, and Sofia Gubaidulina, and recently commissioned concertos by Anders Hillborg, Helena Winkelman, and Fazil Say.
Altstaedt’s recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017. “Four Cities”, a recital program of works by Say, Debussy, Shostakovich, and Janacek with Fazil Say, was released on Warner Classics to great acclaim and received the Edison Klassiek 2017. His latest recording includes the Complete Works for Fortepiano and Violoncello by Beethoven with Alexander Lonquich on historic instruments released on Alpha Classics.
Altstaedt received the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. He was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010-2012 and a recipient of the “Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship” in 2009.
About the DSO
The most accessible orchestra on the planet, the acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. As a community-supported orchestra, generous giving by individuals and institutions at all levels drives the continued success and growth of the organization. In January 2020, Italian conductor Jader Bignamini was named the DSO’s next music director to commence with the 2020-2021 season. Celebrated conductor, arranger, and trumpeter Jeff Tyzik is the orchestra’s Principal Pops Conductor, while Oscar-nominated trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard holds the Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair.
Making its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, the DSO offers a performance schedule that features PVS Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. One of the world’s most acoustically perfect concert halls, Orchestra Hall celebrated its centennial in 2019-2020. In addition, the DSO presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series in seven metro area venues, as well as a robust schedule of eclectic multi-genre performances in its mid-size venue The Cube, constructed and curated with support from Peter D. & Julie F. Cummings.
A dedication to broadcast innovation began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts, which also reaches tens of thousands of children with the Classroom Edition expansion. With growing attendance and unwavering philanthropic support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to embrace and inspire individuals, families, and communities through unsurpassed musical experiences.