French Pianists Frank Braley and Eric Le Sage Make Philharmonic and Walt Disney Concert Hall Debuts In All-French Program

THURSDAY AND SATURDAY, MARCH 6 AND 8, 2008, AT 8 PM

SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2008, AT 2 PM

Stéphane Denève, recognized internationally as a conductor of the highest caliber, leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in three performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Thursday and Saturday, March 6 and 8, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 9, at 2 p.m. The French conductor leads a Francophile's dream program of works by French composers that includes Ravel's superb orchestral suite Le Tombeau de Couperin and his La Valse, Roussel's Symphony No. 3, considered the composer's finest work, and Poulenc's Double Piano Concerto featuring French pianists Frank Braley and Eric Le Sage, both making their Los Angeles Philharmonic and Walt Disney Concert Hall debuts.

Denève, whose Hollywood Bowl performances last summer were met with widespread critical acclaim and great audience enthusiasm, serves as music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and continues to guest conduct orchestras and opera companies around the world. Braley, recognized as a pianist with exceptional musical and poetic qualities, has performed with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, and many others. Le Sage, too, is recognized as a musician of rare musical sensitivity and has established himself as one of the leading pianists of his generation. He has performed with conductors ranging from Edo de Waart and Denève to Sir Simon Rattle, and is the founder and artistic director, with clarinetist Paul Meyer and flutist Emmanuel Pahud, of the “Musique à l’Empéri” international chamber music festival in Salon de Provence, France. Le Sage’s recording of the complete works of Francis Poulenc (solo, chamber music and concertos) was awarded several prestigious prizes.

Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place in Walt Disney Concert Hall’s BP Hall one hour prior to each concert, and are free to all ticket holders. Michael Walsh, former music critic of Time Magazine, novelist and screenwriter, hosts.

STÉPHANE DENÈVE made his inaugural appearance as Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in September 2005 with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In recent seasons, he has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Verdi Orchestra Milan, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic, and in the U.S. with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony and the Indianapolis Symphony. He has also conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, the Washington National Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Sydney Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the New Japan Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. He enjoys a special relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Verdi Orchestra Milan, with which he makes regular appearances. In North America, he has conducted the Houston, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, in addition to those noted above. In 2006, he conducted a Poulenc triple-bill at La Monnaie in Brussels. Denève has also developed relationships with such orchestras as the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and the Orchestre National d'Ile de France. In 1997, he made his debut in Germany with Die Zauberflöte at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, and was immediately engaged on the conducting staff beginning with the following season. In 2004, he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Così fan tutte and also at the Netherlands Opera in a new production of L'Amour des trois oranges with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. He has also conducted productions of The Marriage of Figaro, Don Quichotte, and La bohème at the Paris National Opera, Faust in Salzburg, Peter Grimes at the Montpellier Opera, Béatrice et Bénédict at the Bologna Teatro Comunale, and Pelléas et Mélisande, Erwartung, Carmen, and Bluebeard's Castle at the Cincinnati Opera. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, where he was awarded a unanimous First Prize in 1995, Denève began his career as Sir Georg Solti's assistant for Bluebeard's Castle with the Orchestre de Paris (1995) and Don Giovanni at the Paris National Opera (1996). He also assisted Georges Prêtre for Turandot at the Paris National Opera (1997) and Seiji Ozawa for Dialogues des Carmélites at the Saito Kinen Festival (1998).

FRANK BRALEY, born in 1968, began his piano studies at the age of 4. Six years later he gave his first concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Salle Pleyel. In 1986, he decided to devote himself entirely to music and abandoned his studies in science, entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Three years later he was awarded unanimously first prizes for piano and chamber music. In 1991, at the age of 22, he took part for the first time in an international competition, the Queen Elizabeth Competition of Belgium and won the First Grand Prize. Braley has been regularly invited to Japan, Canada, the United States and all over Europe, to play with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, Orchestra della Swizzera Italiana, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Toulouse Orchestras, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Liège Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Den Haag Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony, Copenhagen Royal Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Wales Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, the Boston Symphony, the Seattle Philharmony. He has perfomed with such noted conductors as Jean-Claude Casadesus, Stéphane Deneve, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Gunther Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Eliahu Inbal, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Yutaka Sado and Michael Schonwand. Braley has also given recitals with the violinist Renaud Capuçon in Amsterdam, Athens, Birmingham, Florence, Ferrara, New York, Washington, Paris and Vienna, and he has an extensive discography with Harmonia and Virgin Classics.

ERIC LE SAGE, recognized as a musician of rare musical sensitivity, is now established as one of the leading pianists of his generation. A highly acclaimed performer of Schumann’s piano music and of chamber music in general, his deep interest in unknown works has earned him a catalogue of over 50 concertos, from Bach to Jolivet and Gershwin to Hindemith, Schoenberg, Britten and Bernstein. He is also, with clarinetist Paul Meyer and flutist Emmanuel Pahud, the founder and artistic director of the “Musique à l’Empéri” international chamber music festival in Salon de Provence, France. Le Sage has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in such major venues as la Roque d’Anthéron, Evian, Aix-en-Provence, festival International de Menton, Festival de Radio-France Montpellier, Potsdam Sanssouci, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Ludwigsburg Festival, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Dublin’s celebrity series, Louisiana Museum of Arts and other venues throughout the world. He has played as a soloist with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie in Brussels, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Arena di Verona, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Zwickau Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, the Lisbon Radio Orchestra, the Koln Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, with conductors such as Armin Jordan, Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Louis Langrée, Michel Plasson and Sir Simon Rattle. Le Sage’s recordings for RCA-BMG, Naïve and EMI are highly acclaimed and have been awarded the most sought after rewards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 10 de Repertoire, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique. Born in Aix en Provence, Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. Le Sage has launched a project of performing Schumann’s complete works for piano on stage as part of the composer’s double-anniversary in 2006 and 2010. The complete cycle will be recorded by the label Alpha.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music, recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music — Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the Association’s involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008, at 8 PM

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2008, at 8 PM

SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2008, at 2 PM

WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles



LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

STÉPHANE DENÈVE, conductor

FRANK BRALEY, piano

ERIC LE SAGE, piano



RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin

POULENC Double Piano Concerto

ROUSSEL Symphony No. 3

RAVEL La Valse



Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place in BP Hall at Walt Disney Concert Hall one hour prior to each concert, and are free to all ticket holders. Michael Walsh, former music critic of Time Magazine, novelist and screenwriter, hosts.

Tickets ($40 - $142) are on sale now online at LAPhil.com, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. When available, choral bench seats ($15) are released for sale to selected Philharmonic, Colburn Celebrity Recital and Baroque Variations performances two weeks prior to the concert. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full-time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For information, please call 323.850.2000.

# # #