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”.
Antoni Wit returns to the Lithuanian National Symphony in the orchestra’s Schumann Complete Symphonies cycle to conduct Symphony No 4 in D-minor, Op.120 on May the 3rd this year at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall. The programme opens with Karłowicz’s Lithuanian Rhapsody Op.11, a highly personal symphonic poem which incapsulates the nostalgia of the rich Lithuanian folk musical culture that surrounded the Polish composer in his childhood. Szymanowski’s ecstatic Violin Concerto No 1, Op.35, composed in Ukraine and performed here by the acclaimed Lithuanian violinist Dalia Kuznecovaite, will bridge the late romantic works.
Yi-Jia Susanne Hou performs Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy Op. 46 in two concerts with the Stockton Symphony on April 6th & 7th at the Atherton Auditorium in Stockton, California. One of Bruch’s signature works for violin and orchestra, Scottish Fantasy dedicated to the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate is part of the programme’s musical excursions depicting destinations of wonder, led by the orchestra’s music director Peter Jaffe.
Stephen Kovacevich begins the new year with the performance of Mozart Piano Concerto No 24 with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton’s of the orchestra’s music director Mo Nayden Todorov. Their concert takes place on 25th of January at Bulgaria Concert Hall in Sofia with the programme also featuring Beethoven Symphony No 5 in c-minor.
