Around the World in 80ish minutes

New Year Gala
Co-production with Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall

Tue. 30 December 2025 20:30

Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall
Christos Lambrakis Hall

The honourable Phileas Fogg travelled around the world in 80 (+1) days, spending a fortune like a true gentleman in order to win a bet. Alternatively, he might just as well have settled deeper into the armchair of his London club and journeyed in his imagination across seas and continents — ears open, and in the company of dazzling soloists, the city’s State Orchestra with a festive, brilliant, and highly virtuosic programme, and of course Alexandros Myrat, a familiar friend of Megaron. Before him (and us) will parade Gershwin’s syncopated jazz swing, the nostalgic waltzes of Hisaishi and Shostakovich, the African-American rhythms of Florence Price, and Chen Yi who transports us for a while to 19th-century China. Johann Strauss makes a brief appearance, as does Ravel with his jester, Skalkottas with a sparkling miniature for xylophone, the dazzling John Williams and Ennio Morricone, Villa-Lobos with his beguiling Bachiana, and Sarasate with his fiery Gypsy Airs. And for the finale, we head to South America, so that we — together with our Phileas — may welcome the New Year dancing to Latin American rhythms.

Event Programme

LEROY ANDERSON
Sleigh Ride

FLORENCE PRICE
Juba from Symphony No. 3

AARON COPLAND
Fanfare for the Common Man

GEORGE GERSHWIN
Variations on “I Got Rhythm” for piano and orchestra

TORU TAKEMITSU
Waltz from the movie The Face of Another

JOE HISAISHI
Merry-Go-Round οf Life from the movie Howls Moving Castle

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Waltz No. 2 from Jazz suite for orchestra No. 1

NIKOS SKALKOTTAS
• «At Break of Day I Shall Rise», from 36 Greek Dances
• Night Amusement, for xylophone and orchestra

JΟΗΝ WILLIAMS
Viktor’s Τale from the movie The Terminal

CHEN YI / ZHOU LONG
Symphony «Humen 1839» (finale)

JOHANN STRAUSS II
Perpetuum mobile, opus 257

J.S. BACH
Aria from Orchestral Suite No. 3

ENNIO MORRICONE
Gabriel’s oboe, from the movie The Mission

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS
Cantilena from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, for soprano and 8 cellos

MAURICE RAVEL
Alborada del gracioso

PABLO DE SARASATE
Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20, for violin and orchestra

ALBERTO GINASTERA
Malambo from ballet suite Estancia