2023 02 24 Markella Hatziano returns to the Athens State Orchestra
You may doubt that sounds can paint? And yet they can! If you want to ‘see’ an ancient forest deity flirting with beautiful nymphs, a couple in love exchanging passionate kisses by the sea under the mid-day sun, bustling celebrations in Baghdad, or a ship swept by raging seas onto the rocks, all you have to do is come to our concert, conducted by Nikos Haliassas, together with the famous mezzo-soprano Markella Hatziano! Because, for the first time, these images and many more besides will be brought to life before your eyes with the help of Katerina Barsukova's imaginative sand animation.
2023 02 15 Pletnev's Rachmaninoff - 150 years since the birth of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Russian music—and Rachmaninoff's oeuvre in particular—often combines a veneer of sober cerebrality with a core of unstoppable, fervent passion. Few musicians have managed to convey this unique duality as successfully as the pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, whose refined taste and flawless virtuosity make him one of the most ideal performers of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody. In the second half of the programme, Loukas Karytinos leads a performance of Richard Strauss's colossal tone poem, in which the composer employs exuberant orchestral timbres to wrestle with... himself, his dreams, his conflicts and his triumphs!
2023 02 03 80 years of the Athens State Orchestra - Vadim Repin in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
The official concert in celebration of the Athens State Orchestra’s 80th birthday could only be a glorious and gloriously musical event. The soprano Cellia Costea performs the lyrical Vocalise by the eminent Greek composer Nestor Taylor, while our artistic director Loukas Karytinos conducts a new reading of Mahler's "titanic" (and not in name alone!) First Symphony, one of the most popular and deeply moving symphonies of late Romanticism. At the heart of the programme, the legendary violin virtuoso Vadim Repin turns his sparkling virtuosity to a performance of a veritable heavy-weight of the violin repertoire.
2023 01 20 Giorgos Petrou with the Athens State Orchestra - A tribute to the memory of Karolos Trikolidis
Exactly a year ago, the death of the eminent maestro Karolos Trikolidis, who had graced the podiums of major Greek and foreign orchestras for decades, left our musical world the poorer for his loss. The Athens State Orchestra honours his memory with a performance of the magnificent First Symphony by Bruckner, a composer whose symphonic works the late maestro had studied in depth and performed to acclaim. Iason Keramidis undertakes the solo duties in the premiere performance of the much-anticipated violin concerto by the tirelessly creative Dimitris Papadimitriou, conducted by the internationally acclaimed maestro George Petrou.
2022 12 30 New Year Musicals Gala
The New Year Gala, co-produced by the Athens Concert Hall and the Athens State Orchestra, has for years now been an integral part of the New Year celebrations—something like a coveted musical "good luck charm" for the New Year! This year, the Gala’s theme is musicals— that complex music theatre genre which combines theatre, dance and music and is loved like no other—especially the works from its Golden Age between the 1940s and 1960s. Under the baton of maestro Michalis Economou, selected singers with a proven track record in this unique and popular style sing melodies that left their mark on New York's Broadway and London's West End, promising to add glamour and joy to this New Year's Eve.
2022 12 16 Messiah - the baroque maestro Christian Curnyn
If there is one work in the European sacred music repertoire that is inextricably linked with the celebration of Christmas, it is surely Handel's Messiah. Since its premiere in 1742, the oratorio has remained Handel's best-known work and one of the absolute pinnacles of the baroque. The Athens State Orchestra is conducted by the British conductor Christian Curnyn, an expert in early music with few equals on the international music scene.
2022 12 09 100th anniversary of Iannis Xenakis' birth
The creative work of Iannis Xenakis left an indelible mark on the musical avant-garde of the latter half of the 20th century. One hundred years after his birth, the dynamic maestro Nikos Vasiliou honours the memory of the composer who transubstantiated his mathematical and architectural knowledge into truly novel, imaginative music. The concert presents two well-known symphonic works by Xenakis along with the Oiseaux exotiques by his mentor in Paris, Olivier Messiaen, and a work by the French avant-garde composer, Edgard Varèse. The guitarist Costas Cotsiolis brings the concert to a close with the sensual concerto by his great fellow guitarist, Leo Brouwer.
2022 12 02 Classical Vienna at the Athens State Orchestra
We often talk about the three great classicists, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but how often do we get a chance to hear works by all three in a single concert? With their talent and inspiring performances, conductor Ektoras Tartanis, renowned pianist and pedagogue Pavel Gililov, and his talented pupil Agapi Triantafyllidi remind us of all the many reasons these three composers remain timeless and relevant, their works ever-priceless.
2022 11 18 Titos Gouvelis in Brahms' First Concerto – A tribute to Dimitris Dragatakis
After his successful debut with the Athens State Orchestra last year, the up-and-coming Italian maestro Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli returns to the ASO podium this year for a performance of Mozart's light-hearted Notturno for four orchestras and the Sixth Symphony by Dimitris Dragatakis, one of our most inspired and restless post-war composers. The concert ends with Titos Gouvelis contributing the solo to Brahms' epic First Piano Concerto, a heartbreaking work that combines the robustness and grandeur of the symphony with the brilliance and extroversion of the concerto.
2022 11 11 1922
As painful as the destruction of Asia Minor’s Greek civilization was a century ago, the treasures of its tradition will live on for ever in our collective national memory. Of course, this inexhaustible Greek tradition inspired outstanding symphonic works by important Greek composers, including Manolis Kalomiris (who was born in Smyrna), Petros Petridis, Constantinos Kydoniatis, and our contemporary, the prolific Dimitris Marangopoulos. The maestro Miltos Logiadis will take the ASO and its audience on a fascinating musical journey to the point where the traditional and the scholarly, the national and the personal, meet.