Easter concert 2021
Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons underscore spring's optimistic message that life will always win out. And it certainly isn’t by chance that the work is one of the most popular in European serious music. It is a piece that moves with its power and joie de vivre, with its images from life turned into sounds and sounds which become images of life. In a work that was ground-breaking for the late baroque era in which it was written, with the violin and the strings in the starring roles. Solo violins: Giorgos Mandilas and Nikos Mandilas. On the podium: Pantelis Kogiamis.
Athens State Orchestra's Soloists 20.03.2021
The fourth concert in the ASO’s Soloists Cycle, the programme opens with Dmitri Shostakovich's original First Concerto for Cello in E flat major, with our Assistant Principal Cello, Angelos Liakakis, undertaking the emotionally charged solo part. The evening culminates in Robert Schumann's Fourth Symphony in D minor, a composition which stands out for the unity of its conception, being played without pauses between its sections, but also for its transition from a dramatic and anguished atmosphere to a mood of surging optimism and joy. On the podium, the Artistic Director of the Athens State Orchestra, Loukas Karytinos.
Athens State Orchestra's Soloists 20.02.2021
How often do we wonder what sort of music Haydn or Mozart would have written if they'd lived in the 20th century? The enfant terrible of Russian serious music, Sergei Prokofiev, provided a convincing answer to that question with his glitteringly fresh First Symphony. This concert in his honour features three orchestral instruments we rarely have the opportunity to enjoy in a solo role: the proud French horn, the tenebrous tuba, and the robust double bass. Three of our musicians at the height of their powers enjoy showcasing the better -and lesser- known charms of these instruments under the baton of the distinguished maestro Stathis Soulis.
Athens State Orchestra's Soloists 23-01-2021
The Athens State Orchestra, under the baton of Romanos Papazoglou, interprets works by Cécile Chaminade, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Dmitri Shocstakovitch. Mihalis Ramos performs as soloist in Chaminade's flute concertino and Apollon Grammatikopoulos in Mozart's 3rd violin concerto. The programme ends with Dmitri Shostakovitch's suite for "Hamlet".
Composers compose Composers
It's something that happens a lot: passionate visionaries of the new looking back at the old to redefine their identity and rejuvenate themselves through a reconnection with their roots. That's how three great 20th-century composers—Webern, Orff and Stravinsky—turned to Bach, Monteverdi and Pergolesi, respectively, transforming their music in the freshest, most sensitive and honest way imaginable. The Athens State Orchestra performs these wonderful musical transformations under the baton of Vladimiros Symeonidis, a conductor at the height of his powers, and is joined for the occasion by the outstanding mezzo-soprano, Margarita Syngeniotou.