Closing concert - 80 years - Liberation of Colmar  

Concert at Saint-Matthieu church - Free admission - Subject to availability.
This festive weekend will culminate in an exceptional concert by the Orchestre symphonique (or National from 01/01/25) de Mulhouse, accredited as the Orchestre national en Région since July. The concert will be conducted by Arie van Beek, with François Dumont at the piano.
The concert programme :
Adagio for strings by Samuel Barber
Concerto in G Major by Maurice Ravel
Symphony No. 9 Op. 95, ‘New World’ by Anton Dvorak
In homage to the French and American liberators, the Orchestre symphonique (or National from 01/01/25) de Mulhouse brings together the New World and old Europe in three tableaux at the crossroads of continents.
Samuel Barber's Adagio, taken from his first string quartet, was premiered by Arturo Toscanini in New York on the eve of the Second World War, in 1938. Its restrained lyricism echoes the Adagietto from Gustav Malheret's Fifth Symphony and has inspired many a film-maker. It has become an essential piece for major events, and was performed again at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's funeral in 1945, a few weeks before the end of hostilities.
Deeply affected by his involvement in the First World War, Maurice Ravel composed the Concerto in G in 1932, shortly after his tour of the USA, during which he met George Gershwin and discovered jazz clubs. A mature work, this concerto borrows a classical form and orchestration while offering an aesthetic all its own, combining Baroque and Romantic heritage with twentieth-century influences. The slow movement, spare and intimate, is framed by two lively movements that draw on the rhythms and harmonies of Harlem.
Adulated by Americans to the point of being offered and accepting the directorship of the brand new New York Conservatory in 1892, the Czech composer Anton Dvorak translated his first musical impressions of the New World the following year in his eponymous 9th symphony. The work offers a powerful vision of wide open spaces and the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, while retaining the lyricism and nostalgia of his beloved native Europe.