Ranskalainen ilta

Vaasa City Orchestra
cond. Félix Benati
sol. Sivan Magen, harp

The young French conductor Félix Benati impressed at the 2024 Jorma Panula Conducting Competition, winning both the audience’s and the musicians’ hearts, as well as earning the approval of the prestigious jury. Now, competition winner Benati makes his official debut with the Vaasa City Orchestra, conducting a fully French and vividly colorful program. In this concert, the harp—the queen of instruments—takes center stage, performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s solo harpist, Sivan Magen. In the works of Maurice Ravel and Henriette Renié, the stylistic currents of early 20th-century France are clearly heard. Louise Farrenc’s Third Symphony has probably received more performances in this decade than in the entire previous century—and deservedly so, as the work shows that France, besides Hector Berlioz, also nurtured another significant and fully Romantic symphonist.