Stephane Deneve

Deneve

An interesting evening last night at the symphony.

First of all, a fantastic program, mostly French (Ravel's G Major Piano Concerto, Fauré's "Pelléas et Mélisande" Suite and Debussy's "Ibéria") with some Stravinsky (Jeu de cartes) thrown in to start.

Frank Braley was the piano soloist. When he came on-stage, he tried to adjust the piano bench lower, to no avail. So, he asked, on stage, for a new one, which was promptly supplied. After the piano-bench shuffle, and some laughter, the performance began. An absolutely stunning performance.

Conductor Stephane Deneve was clearly pulling an inspired performance out of the symphony.

At intermission, Drake saw (Seattle Opera General Director) Speight Jenkins. Hmmm. Speight doesn't show up at the symphony unless there's something that really interests him. It had to be Deneve (for possible  Seattle Opera conducting engagement?). Drake connected the (speculative) dots further. As we recall, Speight has a very high regard for Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande and Deneve is noted for his interpretation of French repertoire. Hmmm again.

At the end of the performance, there was a rousing ovation for Deneve not only from the audience, but from the orchestra (including a number of players stomping their feet). I can't remember when I've seen that.

It was also great to see the orchestra hall so full. There were even a few more folks up on the third tier. Just a few though.