Un Américain à Paris

An American in Paris From minimalism to the epic, from the intimate to the musical, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France invites us to an evening with American accents, featuring Philip Glass, G

An American in Paris

From minimalism to the epic, from the intimate to the musical, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France invites us to an evening with American accents, featuring Philip Glass, George Gershwin, and Leonard Bernstein. As a guest star, violinist Robert McDuffie performs one of the greatest concertos of the 20th century. To kick off this programme celebrating the cross-Atlantic influences, Camille Pépin's Un Monde nouveau echoes Anton Dvořák's New World Symphony. Commissioned by the Orchestra in 2024, this work breaks free from the American prism but draws on the formidable energy of its illustrious model. Another masterpiece of the American repertoire, Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 1 (1987) shines here under the bow of Robert McDuffie, an immense violinist who was also the dedicatee of another work by the master of minimalism. This is followed by two masterpieces immortalised by cinema: Un Américain à Paris, composed by George Gershwin for Vincente Minelli's musical (1952), and West Side Story, written by Leonard Bernstein for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' film (1961), whose music still resonates in the streets of New York and continues to inspire the whole world.

Duration: 1h40 with interval