Paris at Midnight: Jazz and Surrealism in the 1920s
Join PostClassical Ensemble for a screening of the classic Surrealist film Entr’acte (René Clair, 1924) with the original score by Erik Satie performed live. The program also includes film footage of Baker dancing and a tribute to jazz great Sidney Bechet. It culminates with Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G featuring soloist Drew Petersen.
Paris in the 1920s was a place of great artistic conflict and excitement. While some like Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso embraced Neo-Classicism and a “return to order” in the aftermath of the Great War, others launched bold new experiments. Under the leadership of André Breton, Surrealism sought to shock the bourgeoisie, while a passion for African and African American art and culture, from jazz to art to dance, galvanized the city, personified above all by Josephine Baker.
Join PostClassical Ensemble for a screening of the classic Surrealist film Entr’acte (René Clair, 1924) with the original score by Erik Satie performed live. The program also includes film footage of Baker dancing and a tribute to jazz great Sidney Bechet. It culminates with Maurice Ravel’s partly-jazz-inspired Piano Concerto in G featuring soloist Drew Petersen, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 American Pianists Award.
Presented in collaboration with Harry Cooper, senior curator of modern art at the National Gallery of Art.
Program
- Cinéma (1924): Entr’acte symphonique du ballet Relâche pour le film de René Clair
- Music by Erik Satie
- I. Chimneys; deflating balloons
- II. Boxing gloves and matches
- III. Scenes from the air; chess game and boats on roof
- IV. The female dancer and figures within water
- V. The hunter and the beginning of the funeral
- VI. Funeral March
- VII. Funeral procession in slow motion
- VIII. The chase
- IV. The coffin’s fall and the emergence of Börlin
- V. The End (Screen bursts and The End)
- Zouzou (1934): film clip with Josephine Baker Jean Gabin, Pierre Larquey, Yvette Lebon
- Sidney Bechet: Jazz Set (1897–1959)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): Piano Concerto in G Major
- I. Allegramente
- II. Adagio assai
- III. Presto
Post-Concert Discussion with Drew Petersen, Harry Cooper, and Angel Gil-Ordóñez. Presented without intermission.
Artists
- Harry Cooper, guest curator
- Drew Petersen, piano
- David Jones, clarinet
- Jim Roberts, guitar
- Aaron Clay, double bass
- Joe Connell, drums
- Simone Baron, accordion
- PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez
Practical information
- Phone: (202) 467-4600
- Venue: Theater at the The Kennedy Center, 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC 20566
News / Reviews
A master class in French surrealism from the PostClassical Ensemble
— The Washington Post, published on November 10, 2022
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