Event
Carmen and La mer
Naples Philharmonic Masterworks
Naples Philharmonic
Alexander Shelley, artistic and music director
Javier Perianes, piano
Ravel — Mother Goose Suite
Jimmy López Bellido — Ephemerae, Piano Concerto
Bizet — Carmen Suite No. 1
Debussy — La mer
This year’s Storytelling theme again comes into focus with this musical program about fairy tales, a soldier’s seduction and abandonment, memories of the sea and whether music has a scent. Join Artistic and Music Director Alexander Shelley, the Naples Philharmonic and the expert precision of special guest pianist Javier Perianes as they retell the stories we love through music.
The evening opens with Alexander leading the orchestra through Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, a piece Ravel originally wrote as a piano duet (four hands on a single piano) for the 6- and 7-year-old children of friend and Polish sculptor Cyprian Godebski. Throughout the five movements, the orchestra tells the tales of Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb and Beauty and the Beast.
In the evening’s second frame, Perianes joins the orchestra for a piano piece that was written specifically for him. In Ephemerae by Jimmy López Bellido, the Peruvian composer asks whether music ... smells? Fascinated by synesthesia — a neurological condition wherein one sense is triggered by an unrelated sense, such as certain sounds triggering a perception of color — Bellido constructed his concerto similar to the way perfumers categorize scents, with the first movement, “Bloom,” recalling citrus and floral notes; the second, “Primal Forest,” conjuring pine and lavender; and the third, “Spice Bazaar,” evoking a stroll through an open-air spice market, where one’s olfactory system shifts into overdrive.
Bizet’s most beloved work, Carmen, tells the story of a naive soldier whose life goes into a tailspin after being seduced by a Romani woman. This suite from the 1875 opera serves as a smorgasbord of everything Bizet does best: creating a flurry of lasting melodies plucked from old folk songs that he uses to vividly express the soldier’s passion and Carmen’s fate.
Concluding the evening is a performance of Debussy’s La mer, a composition that drew inspiration from the sea paintings of J.M.W. Turner, Japanese artists Hokusai and Hiroshige and the happy memories the composer felt as a young boy during family vacations to Cannes. Called Debussy’s most concentrated and brilliant work due to his ability to capture the sea in all its stages — tranquil, mysterious, tumultuous and terrifying — the story of La mer is just as refreshing today as it was when the composer’s first wave of notes washed over audiences during its debut in 1905.
Prelude at 6:30pm
Join the conductor before the performance for an insightful 30-minute prelude discussion about the program.
Music and Museum
All Masterworks tickets include same-day admission to The Baker Museum. Museum hours on day of performance: 10am-7:30pm. In addition, the doors to Hayes Hall will open 90 minutes prior to this performance. Arrive early to enjoy the exhibitions and light fare available at Heidi's Place.
The Artistic and Music Director position is generously endowed by Sharon and Timothy Ubben.
Tickets start at $29.
Naples Philharmonic
Naples Philharmonic
Founded in 1982, the Naples Philharmonic normally performs over 140 orchestral and chamber concerts, as well as opera and ballet, education, community and special event concerts from September through June each year.
Meet the Musicians
Alexander Shelley
Artistic and Music Director Meet Alexander
Jack Everly
Principal Pops Conductor Meet Jack
James Ehnes
Artistic Partner Meet James
Manuel López-Gómez
Associate Conductor Meet Manuel
Alvin Ho
Assistant Conductor Meet Alvin
Alexander Shelley
Alexander Shelley
Sharon and Timothy Ubben Artistic and Music Director
A “natural communicator, both on and off the podium” (The Daily Telegraph), Alexander Shelley performs across six continents with the world’s finest orchestras and soloists. A passionate and articulate advocate for the role of music in society, he has spearheaded multiple award-winning and groundbreaking projects unlocking creativity in the next generation and bringing symphonic music to new audiences.
With a conducting technique described as “immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality” (Yorkshire Post), Alexander is known for the precision and integrity of his interpretations, for his creative programming and for the breadth of his repertoire. He collaborates with artists such as Lang-Lang, Joshua Bell, Daniel Hope, Hélène Grimaud, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson alongside some of the finest orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia.
As of January 2015, Alexander has served as principal associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he curates an annual series of concerts at Cadogan Hall and tours both nationally and internationally. In September 2015, Alexander succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the youngest in its history.
In 2016, Alexander was awarded the ECHO prize for his second Deutsche Grammophon recording, Peter and the Wolf, and both the ECHO and Deutsche Grunderpreis in his capacity as artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s Zukunftslabor, a visionary project of grass-roots engagement, which uses music as a source for social cohesion and integration.
He has a wealth of experience conducting and presenting major open-air events; in Nuremberg alone, he has, over the course of nine years, hosted more than half a million people at the annual Klassik Open Air concerts — Europe’s largest classical music event.
Meet Alexander
Javier Perianes
Javier Perianes
The international career of pianist Javier Perianes has led him to perform in the most prestigious concert halls with some of the world’s foremost orchestras and celebrated conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta and Klaus Mäkelä, among others.
Perianes frequently appears in recitals across the globe. A natural and keen chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with violist Tabea Zimmermann and the Quiroga Quartet and appears at festivals such as the BBC Proms, Lucerne, Ravinia and others.
Career highlights have included concerts with Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, among others.
Recording exclusively for Harmonia Mundi, Perianes has developed a diverse discography ranging from Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert to Chopin, Debussy and Ravel. His most recent albums include Jeux de Miroirs, an exploration of Ravel’s work, and Cantilena, a celebration of music from Spain and Latin America.
Perianes was awarded the National Music Prize in 2012 by the Ministry of Culture of Spain and named Artist of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards in 2019.
