Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
“Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” – Concert Overture op. 27
Ernest Chausson
“Poème de l’amour et de la mer”
for mezzo sopran and orchestra
Richard Wagner
“The Flying Dutchman” – Overture to the opera, WWV 63
Claude Debussy
“La Mer” – Three symphonic sketches for full orchestra
Edward Gardner
Conductor
Edward Gardner - Conductor
Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic since October 2015, Edward Gardner has led the orchestra on multiple international tours, including performances in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam, and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival.
In demand as a guest-conductor, the 2017-18 season saw Edward debut with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras; and return to the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Danish National Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2018-19 season include re-invitations to conduct the Chicago Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano and the London Philharmonic Orchestra – the latter for concerts in London and New York. Debuts include dates with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Wiener Symphoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestre Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI, and a new production of Káťa Kabanová at the Royal Opera House.
He also continues his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms.
Music Director of English National Opera for ten years (2006-15), Edward has an ongoing relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera where he has conducted productions of Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther. Elsewhere, he has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris; while opera-in-concert continues to be a part of his work with the Bergen Philharmonic, including an acclaimed Peter Grimes at the Bergen and Edinburgh International Festivals.
A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School of Music, and with the Royal Academy of Music who appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.
An exclusive Chandos recording artist, Edward’s award-winning discography includes music by Grieg, Bartok, Sibelius, Janáček, Elgar, Mendelssohn, Walton, Lutosławski, Britten, Berio and Schoenberg.
Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of The Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include being named Royal Philharmonic Society Award Conductor of the Year (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and receiving an OBE for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).
Clémentine Margaine
Mezzo-soprano
Clémentine Margaine - Mezzo-soprano
Considered one of the leading mezzos of her generation, French mezzo soprano Clémentine Margaine has gained international acclaim in recent seasons at such theaters as the Paris Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Metropolitan Opera, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Opera Australia, and Canadian Opera Company. In the 2018/19 season, Margaine will debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as the title role in Carmen, which she will also sing at the Metropolitan Opera and for her debuts at the Vienna State Opera and Hamburg State Opera. She will appear with the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse as Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Dulcinee in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and at the Salzburg Festival for her first performances of the Sphinx in Oedipe. On the concert platform, Margaine will appear as the mezzo soloist in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the Saint Louis Symphony.
In the 2017/18 season, Margaine made several significant debuts: her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Chicago and on tour with Riccardo Muti singing Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer, her debut as Fides in Meyerbeer’s Le Prophete at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Léonor in La Favorite, and her debut at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse as the title role in a new production of Carmen. She also sang Léonor at the Opéra Municipal de Marseille and Bavarian State Opera and returned to the Paris Opera as Concepcion in L’Heure Espagnole and to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Carmen. Margaine began the season singing Marguerite in a concert performance of La Damnation de Faust in Bucharest.
In the 2016/17 season, Margaine made her debuts at the Metropolitan Opera and Paris Opera as Carmen. She also debuted at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dulcinee in Don Quichotte. Other engagements from the season included Margaine’s debut at the Cologne Opera as Concepcion in a new production of L’Heure Espagnole and her debut at Semperoper Dresden in Carmen. The mezzo began the 2015/16 season with her debut at the Washington National Opera as Carmen, subsequently performing the same role for her debuts at the Canadian Opera Company and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. She also made her debut at the Musikverein in Vienna in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Orchestre National de France, under the baton of Daniele Gatti. In June of 2016, Margaine made her Australian Opera debut as Carmen, and in July of 2016 she debuted with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette, under Stéphane Denève. In August of the same year, Margaine gave a triumphant performance as Rebecca in Il Templario for her debut at the Salzburg Festival.
Shortly after graduating from the Paris Conservatory, Margaine was named the “révélation classique” and awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Concours International de Marmande. She subsequently joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang her first performances of Carmen, a role for which she has now become internationally known and since sung at most of the world’s major theaters.
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
The ocean’s depths between calm and storm
Concert introduction: Pre-concert talk with Steffen Georgi: 6.45 pm, Hermann-Wolff-Saal