Prague
Although the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana went deaf towards the end of his life, he continued to compose with a passion. In an era in which Europe’s national consciousnesses were awakening, Smetana looked to his roots, drawing on personal experiences to compose the My Fatherland cycle, a work which transcends its deep local roots to address the whole of Mankind. The Athens State Orchestra performs the work in its entirety for the first time in its history under the baton of Charles Olivieri-Munroe.
Free introductory talk for ticket holders
Brahms and Elgar
For its first symphonic concert of the New Year, the Athens State Orchestra welcomes two experienced artists with long and distinguished careers on the international music scene. The pianist Dimitris Toufexis performs Brahms’ colossal First Piano Concerto. He is followed by the Israeli conductor, Yoav Talmi, who unravels the threads of the symphonic variations which cloak Elgar’s mysterious ‘enigma’ to this day...
Free introductory talk for ticket holders
Black Earth
Two instruments set out on a journey somewhere in southern Europe. Wandering the length of the Mediterranean, they press on until they are in the very heart of Jewish music. In each new country they visit, they encounter sounds, melodies, traditions and a unique history which inspires its composers to create works with the aroma and colour of their homeland—from flamenco and the lullabies of Andalucía to the Balkan rhythms of Romanian dances, and from the fire in the gypsy soul to Turkey’s “black earth” laments.
Free tour of the museum
Metropolis
Fritz Lang’s epic futuristic film Metropolis (1927) is a masterpiece of silent German expressionism and one of the greatest cinematic creations of all time. The restoration of the film’s original version and original music, which was composed by Gottfried Huppertz, was completed just two years ago. Frank Strobel, a master conductor of film music from whom Athenian audiences have come to expect a great deal, will be synchronizing sound and music throughout an evening which no cinéphile will want to miss!
New Year Opera Gala
The Athens State Orchestra and the Athens Megaron Concert Hall invite you to see in the New Year together with a dazzling festive concert dedicated to the music of Giuseppe Verdi—as fresh now as it was when it was written—and to the legendary Maria Callas. Cellia Costea and Dimitri Platanias, singers as well-loved internationally as they are in Greece, will sing famous areas and duets from Verdi on which the great soprano has left her own, indelible mark.
Christmas Concert II
The dynamic Nikos Haliassas will be conducting this year’s Christmas concert, which will feature atmospheric and melodiously tranquil music by German composers. Mellifluous readings from classic German Christmas tales are guaranteed to awaken the spirit of Christmas within us, while Heinrik Albrecht’s highly evocative music breathes new life into Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Music for ten strings
The cellist Asterios Pouftis and the guitarist Nikos Zarkos present a panorama of four works from the charming and unexplored repertoire which brings their two instruments together. Entitled “Music for Ten Strings”, the concert explores romantic and neoromantic works by the Brazilian Radamés Gnattali, the Russian Nikita Koshkin, the Bulgarian Atanas Ourkouzounov and the Mexican Manuel Ponce.
Free guided tour in the Museum
Vienna-Mahler Cycle III
Vienna was Europe’s music capital for many years. Among the many composers who many Vienna their home, Mozart—and later Mahler—belong to those who left an indelible stamp on the city’s musical life with their work. Of course, the ever-fresh waltz is a key element of that musical identity and a form in which many composers wrote exceptional music, including Themistocles Metaxas, a Greek composer who has largely been forgotten.
Free introductory talk for ticket holders
In association with the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation
The king’s pipes
Although we tend to assign the title “king of instruments” to the piano, that honour could more fittingly be awarded to the magnificent church organ, which is being honoured in tonight’s concert! The programme begins with one of Bach’s magnificent organ work transcribed for orchestra by Dimitris Mitropoulos. Next up, the outstanding organist Thierry Escaich joins forces with the Athens State Orchestra to perform two celebrated symphonic works in which the organ plays a lead role.
Free introductory talk for ticket holders
London
While the English may not, generally speaking, be celebrated for their music, Edward Elgar is clearly an exception: his cello concerto in particular, whose solo part is played here by Yannis Tsitselikis, is one of the most emotionally charged concerti in the repertoire. The German conductor Daniel Huppert, General Music Diretor at Staatstheaters Schwerin, also leads the A.S.O. in a performance of Mendelssohn's celebrated Italian Symphony, a work which received its première in London, the city in which our own highly imaginative Kostis Kritsotakis would study some 170 years later.
Free introductory talk for ticket holders