“The simple unity of this recital programme is the exploration of what Beethoven and Schubert – two of the greatest composers who have been the closest to me throughout my life – share in their late or last major works.”
Maestro Antoni Wit returns to the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra to lead special concerts with Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. Their performances on December 14th and 15th at Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater will begin with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No 3. On December 6th & 7th Maestro Wit will also conduct the Schumann & Tchaikovsky programme with Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestras’s Concertmaster Satoshi Morioka as soloist in Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D minor .
Yaroslav Shemet makes his debut with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra at the CSO Ankara Main Concert Hall in Turkey on December 13th. Their programme opens with Turkish Capriccio as a tribute to the work of 20th century Istanbul-born composer/conductor Ferit Tüzün, followed by Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto with the young Italian clarinet virtuoso Kevin Spagnolo as soloist. Premiered in Prague, Dvorak’s Symphony No 8 in G-major in the second half of the concert brings focus to “the Bohemian folk music that Dvořák loved” in the Year of Czech Music.
On 31st of October at the Bulgaria Hall in Sofia Antoni Wit conducts the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in an all-orchestral programme devoted to 20th century Polish music. The concert features Karłowicz’s Eternal Songs coupled with Kilar’s Kościelec 1909 in memory of Karłowicz’s death under an avalanche in the Tatra mountains. The defiant Concerto for Orchestra by Witold Lutosławski opens the concert.
Distinguished pianist Stephen Kovacevich picks up his baton and returns to work as conductor and pianist with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra on 22nd of November at the Lisinsky Hall in Zagreb. Stephen Kovacevich will lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 “Pastoral” as well as Wagner’s Siegfried’s idyll while returning between the two orchestral works to his beloved Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 24 in c-minor which he will play/direct.
Yaroslav Shemet brings Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer directed by Tomasz Konieczny to this year’s Baltic Opera Festival. The performance involving an international cast as well as the orchestra, chorus and dancers of the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk takes place on 24th of July at the Forest Opera in Sopot historically “renowned for prestigious events including Wagner Festivals, earning the esteemed title of the “Bayreuth of the North” . For more details see HERE
Following successful performances of Nos 1, 4 and 9 as part of Mahler’s symphony cycle with the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, Yaroslav Shemet conducts Symphony No. 6 “Tragic” in Katowice this month. Shemet has been consistently building a loyal audience following of his classical music concerts with the transformed orchestra since he became its youngest music director in 2021, and his appearance on May 24th is another much awaited event at Filharmonia Śląska.
Stephen Kovacevich joins in ever-illuminating Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg this summer. Kovacevich will appear at Elbphilharmonie Kleiner Saal on June 28th playing Berg’s Sonata Op.1. A passionate advocate for Berg, Stephen Kovacevich is renowned for his interpretation of the Sonata: “He endowed the music with a sense of fluid movement that sometimes turned into cadence, and Berg could be heard confronting his own role in the 20th century with Kovacevich on piano as a vehicle to develop it. He stretched the ten minutes into an eternity and held the final resolution, the first and only resolution of the Sonata, as if he never wanted it to end”.
