Concert with Kolja Blacher
The Athens State Orchestra is honoured to welcome the internationally celebrated violinist, Kolja Blacher, back to Athens after his triumphant appearance as a soloist last season. Conducting this year from the first stand, he will bring his trademark refinement to a programme featuring popular and technically demanding works from the classical repertoire.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Tribute to Rachmaninoff on the 70th anniversary of his death
The Athens State Orchestra will be marking the seventieth anniversary of the death of Sergei Rachmaninoff with a programme consisting of two of his finest and most charming works. The celebrated pianist Nikolai Demidenko joins us for a performance of the Russian composer’s rarely played but powerful Fourth Concerto, while Vassilis Christopoulos guides the orchestra through his Second Symphony, a work awash with harmonic beauty and fiery passion.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Beethoven cycle (IV)
We continue our Beethoven cycle with another pair of symphonies which highlight different facets of the greatest composer of German classicism. The light-hearted and optimistic Eighth is followed by the monumental and explosive Fifth; one of the best-loved works in the classical repertoire, it expresses Man’s clash with Fate and the agonizing journey to the Light.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
«¡Espana!» Cycle (IV)
After a light a la Rossini introduction written by the Spanish composer, Juan Crisostomo Arriaga, the youthful virtuoso Ruben Mendoza joins forces with the Athens State Orchestra for one of the most impressive works in the violin repertoire: Lalo’s Spanish Symphony. The celebrated conductor, Loukas Karytinos, will also conduct two impressive works inspired by the legendary charmer, Don Juan, by Gluck and Strauss respectively.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Concert for International Women’s Day
On the eve of International Women’s Day, we remember that music is... female! Leading women in the roles of composer, performer and conductor take the reins in a concert that illuminates the sensitivity of female music past and present, and highlights the power of female interpreters. The prolific Emilia Meyer, who was known as the “female Beethoven” during her lifetime, was perhaps the most outstanding of them all.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
70 years of the Athens State Orchestra: a celebratory concert
The Athens State Orchestra gave its historic first concert on 28 February 1943 at the Olympia theatre, performing works by leading Greek composers of the time. Seventy years later, the Orchestra is still hard at work offering audiences in Athens and beyond masterpieces from the international symphonic repertoire.
Remaining true to the spirit of that inaugural concert, we have chosen to celebrate our seventieth anniversary with four Greek works: the ritualistic Phoenix Music by the great innovator, Jani Christou, Pyrrichios by the talented Christos Papageorgiou, Six Greek Dances by the great Nikos Skalkottas, and the world premiere of a new work by a leading Greek composer of today, Thodoros Antoniou.
The concert will also pay tribute to the heart and soul of the Athens State Orchestra, our musicians, three of whom will be playing solo roles: concertmaster Dimitris Semsis, principal clarinettist Spyros Mourikis and timpanist Spyros Lambouras on percussion. This festive spectacular will be conducted by the artistic director of the Athens State Orchestra, Vassilis Christopoulos.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Verdi Year: a tribute
Obviously, the music of the great Italian Romantic composer, Giuseppe Verdi, has little need of anniversary years; its ability to touch the heartstrings with its instinctive musicality and expressiveness has earned it a permanent place in the forefront of the concert scene.
The Athens State Orchestra is staging a concertante performance of Verdi’s celebrated opera, Nabucco, to mark the bi-centenary of the composer’s birth. Verdi’s third opera, and for many his first masterpiece, premiered at La Scala in 1842, winning its composer international fame and recognition.
The celebrated conductor George Petrou leads a group of distinguished Greek opera singers in a performance which conveys the unparalleled magic of Verdi’s music with a rare immediacy. Verdi tells a stirring tale of love, war and religious conflict set against a familiar biblical backdrop with superb arias, stirring choruses and rich orchestral tones.
A fortnight of French music (II)
Two composers, two centuries, two masterpieces. Marc Coppey, a cellist with an international career, performs the introspective Cello Concerto by Henri Dutilleux, one of our greatest living composers. In the second half of the programme, Vassilis Christopoulos conducts Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, a cornerstone of the Romantic repertoire and one of the most stirring symphonic works of all time.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
A fortnight of French music (I)
Daniel Kawka, a conductor who knows and loves 20th-century music, conducts the Athens State Orchestra in a concert which pays its respects to French music and the organ. The “king of instruments” dominates Saint-Saens’ hugely ambitious Third Symphony and demonstrates its vast sonic range in Thierry Escaich’s fascinating First Organ Concerto, performed by the composer.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders
Dancing on ice
Enescu’s charming and up-beat Romanian Rhapsody is followed by Evangelatos’ virtuosic Piano Concerto, one of the finest Greek works for piano and orchestra, played by the distinguished pianist, Vassilis Varvaresos. Conducted by the celebrated Alexander Murat, the Athens State Orchestra unleash the irresistible power and unaffected lyricism of Tchaikovski’s First Symphony.
Pre-concert talk, free for ticket holders