Athens Festival
Thanks to an incendiary combination of talent, virtuosity, expressiveness and brilliance, the piano superstar Alexei Volodin is graced with the ability to captivate audiences wherever he performs, tackling the most demanding works in the piano repertoire and offering up genuinely passionate and inspired interpretations. This year, we welcome him to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to perform what is perhaps the most popular piano concerto of all time: Tchaikovsky's First. Having accompanied him on this journey into the Romantic composer's melodic universe, the Athens State Orchestra and renowned conductor Lukas Karytinos will then transform themselves into... soloists for Bella Bartók's celebrated Concerto for Orchestra. By far the most impressive and beloved symphonic work by the ground-breaking Hungarian composer, this rhythmic work exudes a near frenzied vitality that possesses audiences with the desire to dance! The concert promises to be enormously exciting and to raise the musical temperature with works that literally take one’s breath away!
Athens Festival
Outstanding internationally renowned opera singers join forces with the ASO under the experienced baton of the renowned Estonian-born American conductor Neeme Järvi to perform Ludwig van Beethoven's magnificent Ninth Symphony for the audience in the Herodes Atticus theatre. A supreme achievement of the human spirit, this immortal symphonic masterpiece changed the course of symphonic music more than any other. Still more importantly, as an incomparable testament to beauty and truth, it is the clearest and most moving musical expression of humanism, and a work that symbolizes Man's need to hope and embrace the highest ideals of freedom, dignity and brotherhood of nations.
Janoska style goes symphonic
Since the release on Deutsche Grammophon of the Janoska Ensemble’s debut album “Janoska Style”, that same Janoska Style has evolved into a brand and a guarantee of quality.
The success of the ensemble is the proof. Since their first Album presentation in 2016, these creative musicians have won the hearts of thousands of enthusiastic fans on four continents with their unique talent for combining different musical genres.
The Athens State Orchestra in motion Ι – Mozart the Magic Flute
The timeless appeal of Mozart's Magic Flute has a lot to do, of course, with the universally acknowledged perfection and expressiveness of his music, but it's also because Emanuel Schikaneder's libretto expresses the ever-topical humanist ideals of the European Enlightenment and of Freemasonry in an elegant and vividly symbolic way. Under the baton of the dynamic Katia Molfesi, a cast of fine Greek lyric actors recreate Mozart's operatic swansong in a semi-staged version, adding a beautifully spiritual, fairy tale tone to this year's Christmas celebrations.
An East - West Wind 65 years of diplomatic relations between Greece and Thailand
Athenian audiences know the Belgian conductor Michel Tilkin and his work very well, thanks to his highly successful collaborations with the Athens State Orchestra in recent years. As a distinguished interpreter of the Greek repertoire, he will leading a performance of Georgios Lambelet's celebrated Feast and a recent work by Lefteris Veniadis. Theodore Kerkezos and Theodosia Ntokou, both soloists who have achieved considerable international acclaim, will bring this season to a spectacular close with performances of two outstanding concerti, for saxophone and piano respectively.
Johann Sebastian Bach, St Matthew's Passion - in motion ΙI
For every lover of Johann Sebastian Bach's music and of music in general, St Matthew's Passion is "sacred", a supreme expression of Man's progress towards the divine and as a de profundis testament to the soul and spirit at their purest and most sincere. On this occasion, the Passion will acquire an additional dimension: movement, with dance that seeks to embody its sublime musical meanings and render them more tangible, dramatic and - why not?- topical.
Christoph Eschenbach conducts the Athens State Orchestra
Mahler's magnificent Second Symphony fully justifies the dictum that the Austrian composer's symphonies are "operas without words". Its five movements constitute a multifaceted musical meditation on life and death, the essence and the tragedy of human existence, but also assert faith in God's infinite mercy. The great and highly experienced conductor Christoph Eschenbach brings out all the heart-breaking and febrile thoughts, recreating one of the greatest symphonic edifices of all time with his baton.
Journey to the centre of Music - Ballet music
A series of interactive concerts which seeks to shed light on everything that connects contemporary audiences with symphonic music, making its timeless repertoire more approachable to everyone, whether they are newcomers to the form or music lovers who are already fans. Video, Talks and Music are combined to provide a dramatized portrait of a different symphonic genre each time. Historical facts both well-known and unfamiliar, personal stories, hidden symbolisms and motifs, and the structural magic of the works are presented in an entertaining way.
Journey to the centre of Music - Ballet music
A series of interactive concerts which seeks to shed light on everything that connects contemporary audiences with symphonic music, making its timeless repertoire more approachable to everyone, whether they are newcomers to the form or music lovers who are already fans. Video, Talks and Music are combined to provide a dramatized portrait of a different symphonic genre each time. Historical facts both well-known and unfamiliar, personal stories, hidden symbolisms and motifs, and the structural magic of the works are presented in an entertaining way.
Music – Poetry II
The relationship between poetry and music has always been a close one, and vital for both art forms. Music's limitless emotional depth gives poetry a goal to aim for, while poetry's clarity of meaning is something music has always sought to emulate. Great poems make great music, and the concert to be conducted by the multifaceted Levi Hammer brings together two works born of such fortunate comings-together. The programme also includes the Concerto for two pianos by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, a work as little known as it is scintillating, performed by the distinguished soloists Panagiotis Trochopoulos and Apostolos Palios.