From Latin America to Paris
How can an exotic journey fail to stimulate an artist’s imagination? When Gershwin traveled to Paris and later to Cuba, and Milhaud spent some time in Brazil, their impressions formed the starting point for charming, light-hearted works which the principal conductor of the Romanian Radio Orchestras and Choirs Tiberiu Soare conducts for our enjoyment. The programme is rounded off with the sensual Tango Suite by the Argentine Astor Piazzola, performed by the distinguished saxophonist, Theodoros Kerkezos.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Solitary figures - German Romantics III
Loneliness is almost always an inevitable condition for great men, both real and imaginary. This was definitely the case with the distant Beethoven or the anonymous hero of Strauss’s vision. In each case, the music outlines and expresses their personalities, thoughts and actions with the intense timbres, vigour and epic magnificence they warrant.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Once upon a time–Slavic Soul III
Scheherazade, the best-known of Rimsky-Korsakov's works, is also one of the most passionate and alluring creations of Russian Romanticism. The Overture from the opera May Night provides still more proof of the composer's inexhaustible talent. The Athens State Orchestra is delighted to welcome the internationally fêted harpist Jana Boušková, who will perform Glière's ethereal concerto, one of the key works of the harp repertoire.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Petronius' Satyricon
Petronius, a member of Nero's court, portrays the debauchery of the Roman empire of his era with a provocative and satirical realism. His Satyricon provided the inspiration for Fellini's film of the same name. The well-known composer, Dimitris Papadimitriou, has selected key sections from the work and reworked them musically to create an ambitious work which verges on opera.
From Prague to Leningrad - Slavic Soul II
The “Prague” Symphony was named after the city in which it received its premiere performance and has enjoyed a reputation ever since as one of the great Austrian classicist's most magnificent works. Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony was premiered exactly a century and a half later in Leningrad; a masterful blending of modernist cerebrality and genuine sentiment, the symphony is an equally impressive achievement. Both works will be conducted by the Indonesian maestro, Adrian Prabava, a rising star on the music scene.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
The joy of living - Slavic Soul I
This opening concert introduces one of the two main thematic threads running through the Athens State Orchestra's concerts this season: works by Slavic composers from central and eastern Europe. The orchestra's new artistic director, Stefanos Tsialis, conducts two celebrated symphonic works by the great Czech composer Antonín Dvorák along with the lyrical first piano concerto by the 'poet of the piano', Frédéric Chopin, with the ever-fascinating pianist Thodoris Tzovanakis.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
