Paris
Shock, glamour and experiments
In the years surrounding the First World War, Paris exerted an irresistible pull for artists, intellectuals and sophisticates the world over. In 1909 Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes arrived in town and rocked the world. In 1918, a new wave of prosperity, confidence and creativity swept across Europe, and the undisputed centre of this exciting epoch was Paris.
The Paris Olympics in 1924 and the Paris Exposition the following year typified this sense of progress in the quintessential modern city. Exciting technological innovations such as the phonograph, the radio and the motorcar coincided with a flourishing bohemian subculture with a tastefor provocation and scandal.
The Roaring Twenties brought a wave of confidence, experimentation and hedonistic abandon to the city. The free-thinking, cosmopolitan atmosphere lay claim to some of the great artists of the time – Picasso, Stravinsky and Dali rubbed shoulders with Hemingway and Gertrude Stein; Dada-ists and Surrealists with Coco Chanel and James Joyce; and all were among the crowds flocking to see African-American dance icon Josephine Baker.
Young Parisian composers cast off music’s Germanic seriousness and revelled in music-hall, ragtime, jazz and the sounds of the urban street.
Paris - The Programme
For the cultural and artistic elite, Paris was Utopia. The mix of nationalities and ideologies fostered creativity at the cutting edge. But what made the Roaring Twenties so loud? This weekend, dive into the Parisian melting pot with a weekend bursting with events that lay bare the economic, political, geographic and cultural catalysts for these ‘Crazy Years’.
Weekend events from 10am – 6pm
Download the full timetable here
SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY- DAY PASSES AND FREE EVENTS
Andrew Hussey
Paris: The People’s City Cultural historian Andrew Hussey explores the social history of Paris during the 1920s, moving beyond the artistic foment of the era to lay bare the personalities of its people.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 11am – 12 noon.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
Listen to This with Tom Service
Writer Tom Service talks about and plays recorded extracts of music from Stravinsky, Debussy, Poulenc and Satie.
The Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 12.30pm – 1.30pm & 3.30pm – 4.30pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
Surrealism
Luke Kennard and Mark Waldron evoke the spirit of Surrealism
through readings of the manifesto alongside great surrealist poems and their own work.
Level 4 Green Bar at Royal Festival Hall, 12.30pm – 1.30pm & 3.30pm –4.30pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
Un Chien Andalou & Menilmontant
Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel’s surrealist classic, accompanied by Dimitri Kirsanoff’s deeply affecting Menilmontant.
Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall,12.30-1.30pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
The Debussy Film
Ken Russell’s documentary about the French composer, starring
Oliver Reed.
Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 2-3.20pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
Riot at the Rite
A film dramatising the notorious premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite
of Spring.
Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 3.30-5pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
Bites
A session of four 15-minute talks with subjects including the Moulin Rouge; the Surrealist Manifesto; the impact of World War I on life in Paris; and the salon of Gertrude Stein. Bites sessions run throughout the weekend with a range of different topics each time.
Weston Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall,
12.30pm-1.30pm, 2pm – 3pm & 3.30pm – 4.30pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
Stravinsky Hits Paris
Jonathan Cross of Oxford University explores the impact of
the arrival of Igor Stravinsky on the Parisian cultural scene.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 2pm – 3pm.
Entry with Saturday or weekend festival pass
SUNDAY 10 FEB- DAY PASSES AND FREE EVENTS
Breakfast with Stravinsky
Discover Stravinksy’s The Rite of Spring in this informal session,
led by animateur Rachel Leach.
The Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 10.30am – 11.30am
FREE
Jacqueline Rose: The Paris of Marcel Proust
Writer Jacqueline Rose gives this keynote talk on Marcel Proust,
author of In Search of Lost Time.
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 12 noon – 1pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Un Chien Andalou & Menilmontant
See Saturday 9
Blue Room, Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 12-1pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Igor Stravinsky: The Final Chorale
The story of a musical oddity, Stravinsky’s Symphonies for Wind
Instruments.
Blue Room, Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 1.30-2.30pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
The Blood of a Poet & The Starfish
A double-bill of avant-garde films by Jean Cocteau’s and Man Ray.
Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 3.30-4.50pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Kevin Jackson: 1922
A month-by-month journey through 1922, the year TS Eliot’s
The Waste Land and James Joyce’s Ulysses, were published.
Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall, 12 noon – 1pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Bites
See Saturday 9.
Weston Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall, 12 noon - 1pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Sarah Churchwell: Americans in Paris
Sarah Churchwell explores the salon culture of Paris its influence
on writers like Stein and Fitzgerald.
The Front Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1.30pm – 2.30pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Stravinsky Dances: The Rite of Spring and Les Noces
Stephanie Jordan examines the choreography by Nijinsky and
his sister Nijinska for two of Stravinsky’s most challenging
scores for dance.
Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall, 3.30pm – 4.30pm
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival passes
Le Jazz: Julian Joseph in conversation
Jazz pianist and composer Julian Joseph in conversation about the fascination of jazz and black music for composers such as Stravinsky, Ravel, Milhaud and Poulenc.
Weston Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall, 1.30pm – 2.30pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Robert Bud Penicillin: The Drug of the Century
Author Robert Bud talks about the discovery of penicillin in 1928,
often cited as the most significant drug of the 20th century.
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 3.30pm – 4.30pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes
A talk with Jane Pritchard, curator of the V&A show Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes.
Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall, 1.30pm – 4.30pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Stravinsky Dances: The Rite of Spring and Les Noces
Stephanie Jordan examines the choreography by Nijinsky and
his sister Nijinska for two of Stravinsky’s most challenging
scores for dance.
Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall, 3.30pm – 4.30pm
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival passes
What’s French about French Music?
Find out what characterises the music of Debussy, Ravel and others in this talk by the University of Bristol’s Professor Katharine Ellis.
Weston Pavilion at Royal Festival Hall, 3.30pm – 4.30pm.
Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
An afternoon at the Cabaret Voltaire: Dada is the Heart of Words
Celebrate the birth of Dadaism with performance poets Peter
Finch and Holly Pester.
Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall, 5pm – 6pm. Entry with Sunday or weekend festival pass
Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen’s film about a writer who wanders from the present day into 1920s Paris and the likes of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Stein.
The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall, 8pm
FREE
ON THE WEB
Image gallery
See all images from the Paris weekend on Flickr
RELATED LINKS
The Guardian
The Rest Is Noise festival: the third instalment – Paris
The Southbank Centre's head of classical music introduces the third part of the Rest Is Noise season – with the action switching to Paris and the worlds of Josephine Baker and Stravinsky
Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring - video preview
Jazz pianist and composer Julian Joseph, at the festival to speak about the fascination of jazz and black music for composers such as Stravinsky, talks to Imogen Tilden about the Russian composer's visionary classical work.
More from The Guardian
The Rest is Noise festival: what's your favourite piece of 20th-century music?
Conductors, musicians and artists share their favourite classical works from a century of musical turbulence.
The Rest Is Noise festival: Alex Ross, Strauss and the 20th century
Watch Gillian Moore in conversation with The Guardian's Laura Barton and Imogen Tilden.
Watch the editor's picks from The Rest is Noise festival.
The Open University
If you have been inspired by one of the many events taking place at The Southbank centre for The Rest is Noise festival, you can take your interest further with the Open University.
Paris - The Concerts and Events
Riot At The Ballet - Saturday 16 February 2013. The daring experiment of the Ballets Russes. Featuring the London Philarmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Leila Josefowicz.
Plus
Ambitronix- Friday 8 February 2013. Two of the most distinctive 21st-century experimental musicians play a rare UK gig at Southbank Centre.
Poulenc in Focus- Friday 8 February 2013. Students from the Royal College of Music explore the chamber music of Francis Poulenc.
Zeitgeist: Dance of the Machines - Saturday 9 February 2013. An adventure into Paris featuring pianola, aircraft propellers and electric bells.
Ravel's Obsession with Spain - Saturday 9 February 2013. Music that evokes the spirit of the place.
Paris Saturday Day Pass- Saturday 9 February 2013.
Paris Sunday Day Pass- Sunday 10 February 2013.
Paris Weekend Pass-Saturday 9 February 2013 - Sunday 10 February 2013.
Gamelan Taster Workshops- Saturday 9 February 2013- Sunday 10 February. Come and experience the beautiful Javanese percussion orchestra for yourself in a Gamelan Workshop at Southbank Centre.
Gamelan Taster Workshops- Sunday 10 February 2013.
Midnight In Paris- Sunday 10 February 2013. In Woody Allen's critically acclaimed 2011 film, a struggling screenwriter wanders back into 1920s Paris.
The Princess' Salon - Sunday 10 February 2013. Avant-garde experimentation blossomed in the Paris salons thanks to wealthy patrons, such as the Princesse de Polignac.
Dylan Howe/Will Butterworth St Friday 15 February 2013. Following on from their critically acclaimed duo re-imagining of Stravinsky.
Fairy Tales & Surreal Pictures - Sunday 17 February 2013. Evocative and forward-thinking music written to delight the Paris salons.
Les Six - Wednesday 20 February 2013. A rare revival of the score to Cocteau's nonsensical ballet.
A Moveable Feast: Southbank Centre Book Club. Wednesday 27 February 2013. A deeply personal, warm and witty account of Hemmingway's time in Paris as an impoverished writer.
For more information, visit the Southbank Centre ticketing website