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Everything that touches us in the great pieces of German Romanticism will be found in abundance during this concert: the narrative, “like a journey” lyricism in Mendelson’s “Hebrids” Overture, the introspective melancholy and the stimulating mood vacillations in Schuman’s cello Concerto, the most fervid and genuine passion, sometimes as a scream, sometimes as a whisper in Brahm’s 1st Symphony.

What happens when electric guitars, basses, amplifiers and synthesizers give their place to violins and double basses, clarinets, trombones and flutes, to render famous hits of the rock scene?
Acknowledged artists, each one in his own style, meet on stage and invite us to live the experience. The greatest hits of Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, AC/DC, Deep Purple and The Police, will be performed by the great musicians of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Athens State Orchestra, under the direction of the conductor, composer and orchestrator Friedemann Riehle.
80 musicians, electric instruments, prestigious singers and Frantisek Hong, Frank Zappa's drummer, create a fascinating mixture of sounds, images and experiences we will enjoy under the Acropolis.

SNFCC once again welcomes Parklife, the series of concerts at Stavros Niarchos Park, inviting the audience to a unique experience where music animates nature, and nature enhances the music experience.

Back to the city with a unique concert by the Athens State Orchestra: Favorite melodies from popular musicals will pour out of Stavros Niarchos Park! Excerpts from West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, South Pacific and Girl Crazy by composers including Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Andrew Lloyd Webber will enchant young and old in a concert you can enjoy lying down on the grass.
The Orchestra will be directed by the distinguished conductor Vladimiros Symeonidis, featuring the young and gifted Vassia Zacharopoulou and Spyros Klissas in covers of classics, such as The Music of the Night and I Could Have Danced All Night.

Visitors are advised to bring with them mosquito repellent and a mat, blanket, or other similar item for sitting on the ground.

Our Orchestra’s principal hornist Kostas Siskos, is the soloist in the Concerto by our blooming composer Hristos Hatzis, a melancholic contemplation on 20th century’s dark pages and the unuttered future of mankind. Strauss’s juvenile Serenade for winds and Beethoven’s full of vividness, charm and optimism Fourth Symphony act ideally as a necessary psychological counterbalance but also as a euphoric culmination of the artistic period.

The talented students of The Athens State Orchestra’s Academy for Young Musicians are “recruited” by their professional colleagues’ side, to deal with Strauss’s epic, intensely experiencing “Alpine Symphony”, which thoroughly explores Man’s dynamic relationship with Nature (sometimes harmonic, sometimes conflicting). Prior to that, the eminent Greek pianist Alexandra Papastefanou promises a fascinating reading of Mozart’s 22nd Concerto.

For three quarters of a century, the Athens State Orchestra has, uninterruptedly and steadily, been the main carrier of the existence and the advancement of symphonic music in our homeland. Despite occasional difficulties and external obstacles, or rather because of them, we are all proud to be able to continue always with the same faith and loyalty to serve the Art of Music. This anniversary concert focuses on two great Greek composers of the past and the present, Nikos Skalkotas and Giorgos Kouroupos respectively; in parallel, we welcome back with pleasure one of our “old acquaintances” the worldwide prominent pianist Anatol Ugorski.

Only a few days after our acquaintance with the Israeli composer Yoav Talmi, we will have the chance to enjoy the same brilliant artist, this time at the podium of the conductor. His deep knowledge and experience in classic and romantic repertoires guarantee unique interpretations of Haydn’s and Schumann’s symphonies. Among those, the flourishing guitar soloist Giorgos Bechlivanoglou interprets the Concerto composed by the eminent composer Dimitris Maragopoulos.

Perhaps the most celebrated “moment” in the work of the great Austrian composer is the famous Adagietto, the slow movement of the 5th Symphony which quiet imposingly accompanied, years after its composition, Visconti’s cinematographic transcription of the “Death in Venice”. However, the whole Fifth symphony is a fine piece of objet d’art, a long and adventurous internal journey in the innermost paths of human soul; the guide in this journey will be the awarded German conductor Matthias Foremny.

Easter has always been a reason to warm up our spiritual quests. And undoubtedly, Leonard Bernstein, a genuine homo universalis of music in the 20th century, achieved this with his pieces of religious metaphysical content. His music, hearty sincere and emotionally charged, together with the contemplating Elegy by the Israeli composer Yoav Talmi, impart the due reverence for this year’s Easter celebration.

After the recent loss of a historic member of the Athens State Orchestra and brilliant Greek musician and pedagogue, Charalambos Farandatos, this concert pays a minimum tribute to his memory. One of his most known disciples, Spyros Mourikis, performs Mozart’s grandiose concerto, while the great pianist and maestro Vladimir Askenazy conducts the dark Tenth Symphony of the eminent Soviet symphonist, a shattering “chronic” of Stalinism and at the same time a personal, de profundis lamentation for hopes that were confuted.