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Donald Macleod finds Lalo finally enjoying success when he hits the jackpot with his second opera. Music includes excerpts from Le roi d'Ys, and his only string quartet.

Even if you know the name, it's possible you might not be able to place the French composer Edouard Lalo date-wise. He was born in Lille in 1823. Berlioz was his senior in age by some twenty years, Saint-Saëns twelve years his junior. Lalo has a direct contemporary in the shape of César Franck, another composer who preferred to stay out of the limelight. As a musician, Lalo cut an independent path, preferring to complete his music studies privately rather than following the accepted route of attending the Paris Conservatoire.

Lalo had a retiring nature, a man who appears to have preferred the quiet life. That doesn't mean he wasn't sociable. He seems to have been generally well liked. He lived in Paris from the age of sixteen and mixed with and knew all the leading musical personalities of the day. Aside from the Symphonie espagnole, he wrote several operas, a ballet, a symphony, a whole number of orchestral and chamber works including three piano trios and a string quartet, and something in the region of 30 songs.

Trying to get a handle on Lalo isn't straightforward. The first letter that’s been preserved dates from 1848, by which time Lalo was in his late twenties. His son Pierre was a primary source of information about his father, but more recent research indicates the picture he drew seems to have been somewhat rose-tinted. The first full length biography in English has yet to be published.

Donald Macleod sets about mapping the life and the music of this elusive, yet significant figure in French musical history in a survey that takes us from Lalo's early experiences in Lille, where he first met Berlioz, to his eventual triumph, age sixty on the opera stage with Le roi d'Ys.

After the disastrous first night of his only ballet Namouna, Lalo was in a state of some anxiety at the premiere of his opera. His cast and the director of the opera company weren't reassuring!

Overture to Le roi d’Ys (excerpt)
Ö÷²¥´óÐã Philharmonic
Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Vainement, ma bien-aimée (Le roi d’Ys, Act 3)
Jonas Kauffmann, tenor
Bavarian State Opera
Bertrand de Billy, conductor

String Quartet in E flat
I: Allegro vivo
Quatuor Simon

Piano Concerto in F minor
I: Lento-Allegro
Pierre-Alain Volondat, piano
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Kees Bakels, conductor

Le roi d’Ys (Act 1)
Margared, ô ma soeur!
Rozenn! que dis-tu donc ?
Ah, sous ce cri d'orgueil...
Je n'ai pas à pleurer tout bas
Barbara Hendricks, Rozenn, Soprano
Delores Ziegler, Margared, Mezzo soprano
French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Armin Jordan, conductor

Le roi d’Ys (Act 3 Tableau 1 excerpt)
Voici l'heure, viens
Vois ton amant
Cher Mylio!
Marcel Vanaud, Karnac, baritone
Delores Ziegler, Margared, Mezzo soprano
Barbara Hendricks, Rozenn, soprano
Eduardo Villa, Mylio, tenor
French Radio Chorus
French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Armin Jordan, conductor

Symphonie espagnole
V: Rondo
René Capuçon, violin
Orchestre de Paris
Paavo Järvi, conductor

Producer: Johannah Smith