Journey to the centre of Music - Intermezzo
A series of interactive concerts which seeks to shed light on everything that connects contemporary audiences with symphonic music, making its timeless repertoire more approachable to everyone, whether they are newcomers to the form or music lovers who are already fans. Video, Talks and Music are combined to provide a dramatized portrait of a different symphonic genre each time. Historical facts both well-known and unfamiliar, personal stories, hidden symbolism and motifs, and the structural magic of the works are presented in an entertaining way.
Journey to the centre of Music - Intermezzo
A series of interactive concerts which seeks to shed light on everything that connects contemporary audiences with symphonic music, making its timeless repertoire more approachable to everyone, whether they are newcomers to the form or music lovers who are already fans. Video, Talks and Music are combined to provide a dramatized portrait of a different symphonic genre each time. Historical facts both well-known and unfamiliar, personal stories, hidden symbolism and motifs, and the structural magic of the works are presented in an entertaining way.
Cyprien Katsaris 100 years of Mikis Theodorakis
This year marks the centenary of the birth of the great Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, an artist who was marked by the turbulent times in which he lived, but left in turn his own mark on the era, expressing his vision for a better world through his compositions in both serious and popular genres, and through his political action. The great virtuoso Cyprien Katsaris, who was a close collaborator of Theodorakis, performs the composer's exhilarating First Suite, along with Liszt's electrifying Hungarian Fantasy. The distinguished maestro Zoi Tsokanou will also be conducting an elegant work by Lili Boulanger, the French composer who died very young, and the magnificent symphonic centrepiece of French impressionism, Claude Debussy's The Sea.
"...after Shostakovitch..." 90 years from the birth of Schnittke - 50 years since the death of Shostakovitch
All the works in tonight’s programme were written in the Soviet Union between 1973 and 1983, a decade that served as a prelude to what could well be the most significant political sea change in modern history: perestroika. In this turbulent and uncertain period, a new generation of artists who had absorbed a diverse range of modernist trends along with the teachings of the past found their voice. The most outstanding among them was Alfred Schnittke, the most performed and recorded composer of the latter half of the 20th century. Two of his masterpieces are included in tonight’s programme, along with a stirring set of songs by Shostakovitch, On the podium, the ever-imaginative Nikos Vasileiou is joined by two distinguished artists: Ilias Sdoukos and Maria Katsoura.
Gala celebration
The New Year’s Eve gala could not but be dedicated to Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). This year, we have the pleasure of collaborating with the renowned Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, the city where he lived for more than thirty years and where he composed his masterpieces. In co-production with the CTO and with the valuable assistance of the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, we welcome to the stage of Megaron the Athens Concert Hall three exceptional performers: Claudia Pavone (Valeria Sepe, the soprano who was initially to sing, couldn't participate due to health issue) the ideal Butterfly in the festive season of the 2024 Puccini Festival; Angelo Villari, a tenor born almost specifically for the great roles of the composer; and Valerio Galli, a great conductor of the younger generation and winner of the famous Puccini Prize. At the heart of the programme are the three great love scenes for soprano and tenor from the famous “atypical trilogy”: La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The duets of Mimi and Rodolfo, Tosca and Cavaradossi, Pinkerton and Cho-Cho-Cho-San are the epitome of Puccini’s lyrical style, with its source of melodic inspiration, orchestral mastery and unsurpassed vocal writing. However, there is also a lesser-known side of the composer, which we will discover in the orchestral excerpts from the – rather unknown – first two operas Le Villi and Edgar, as well as youthful works for orchestra, such as the Symphonic Prelude or the Symphonic Caprice (where the Bohemians already make their appearance, a full thirteen years before the opera was composed). A unique opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the “maestro” from Lucca and to bow, once again, to his genius.
he Polar Express in Concert
Get up, get on, and get ready for the ride of your life! It’s Christmas Eve, and you’re about to roller-coaster up and down mountains, slip-slide over ice fields, teeter across mile-high bridges, and be served hot chocolate by singing waiters more astonishing than any you can imagine. You’re on The Polar Express!
Tom Hanks stars in and Robert Zemeckis directs this instant holiday classic filmed in dazzling performance-capture animation that makes every moment magical. “Seeing is believing,” says a mysterious hobo who rides the rails with you. You’ll see wonders. And you’ll believe. All aboooooard!
THE POLAR EXPRESS and all related characters and elements © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s24)
Alan Silvestri (b. 1950)
The Polar Express in Concert
audio in English
subtitled in Greek
2024 12 13 The Christmas Nutcracker
On the eve of the Christmas holidays, the music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite is so closely linked in our minds to the great feast of Christianity, it could hardly be absent from our concerts. The evergreen melodiousness and delicacy of the work is highlighted by the energetic German maestro Cornelia von Kerssenbrock, who regularly appears on the podiums of major orchestras and opera houses in Europe, Asia and America. Performing alongside her, the Greek-Japanese violinist Noé Inui, an inspired and internationally-celebrated poet of the violin, takes on the "Parthenon" of the violin repertoire: Beethoven's unique Violin Concerto—which, apart from being the only work of this type the composer wrote, is also of singular value.
2024 12 06 West Side Story Suite EN
The prominence of German, French and Russian music in concert programmes often leads us to ignore—or at least underestimate—the worth of music from the Anglo-Saxon sphere. This is precisely the tendency this concert sets out to correct, and in the most convincing manner possible, by presenting three masterpieces by Edward Elgar, an Englishman, and the Americans Leonard Bernstein and John Adams. Our thriving musicians, the maestro Michalis Economou and pianist Stefanos Nasos perform three works written in three different centuries: the Enigma Variations (from the 19th century) is the romantic masterpiece with which Elgar conquered the world, West Side Story (20th) spoke to the souls of audiences everywhere by interweaving serious music into the format of the musical, while John Adams' Concerto (21st) proves that classical forms still have the power to electrify audiences today.
2024 11 29 Pepe Romero & Christoph Eschenbach
The Spaniard Pepe Romero is one of the most recognizable and influential ambassadors of the classical guitar, and one of those gifted artists who are able to communicate the most elevated aspects of their art to the simple man in a direct and profound way. His contributions as a performer, a recording artist and a teacher are invaluable, while his performance of the Conceirto Aranjuez, a truly iconic cornerstone of the guitar repertoire, inevitably attracts interest. As, indeed, does the new work which the outstanding composer and pianist Achilleas Gouastor has written in honour of Christoph Eschenbach, who will be conducting tonight's concert. The legendary maestro has consistently shown his appreciation for the Athens State Orchestra—an appreciation the ASO continues to reciprocate, as does our audience, through its steadfast devotion to his always-profound interpretive approaches.
