Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) is all set to initiate its 2019-20 season called ‘The QPO’s Season of Visibility’ from next week with the opening concert taking place on September 7.
“The Qatar Philharmonic welcomes all to the opening night of the new concert season. It marks the start of the 12th year since the orchestra’s inauguration in 2007 and brings with it a mature musical family. With it also comes a promise: a year of novelty, excitement and enrichment for the most important part of any orchestra, the concert-goers,” noted a statement from QPO.
“We have a great deal planned for you in all the regular ways; and in some irregular ones, too. The season of concerts is innovative and broad, a continuance of our commitment to bridge Arabic and Western music; but we are reaching out still further this year. It will be up to the music lovers to keep an eye peeled – and perhaps it will fall on some familiar faces where you do not expect them. We feel that Qatar is a place ripe for music, and that we are here to make it sound.
“There is something in it for those of who are with children here in Doha, too – look toward their schools. It may so happen that you will see the QPO there, integrating music with education this school year; for we have decided that it is time to look towards the important things in life.”
The first concert ‘Dvoák symphony no. 8’ will be held at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) Auditorium 3 on September 7 at 7:30pm.
Aziz Shokhakimov will conduct the concert and Hans H. Suh will play piano with the orchestra.
The programme includes performances of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No.2 in C minor for Piano and Orchestra, op. 18 and Antonín Dvoák’s Symphony No.8 in G major, op. 88.
Music has the power to heal. It helped cure the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from a creative crisis in 1901, when he composed the Concerto No. 2 in C Minor for Piano & Orchestra Op. 18. Today, it stands as one of the most popular and demanding piano concertos of the romantic era, with melodies so striking that pop stars like Frank Sinatra and Celine Dion were moved to incorporate them into their own work.
During the concert, they will sound through the interpretation of Hans H. Suh, the Korean virtuoso and laureate of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Intl. Competition.
Suh has performed as a soloist in many of the world’s distinguished venues, such as Avery Fisher Hall (renamed David Geffen Hall) and Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center, Hitachi Systems Hall Sendai, and the Concert Hall of Seoul Arts Center.
Born in Seoul, Korea on May 22, 1990, Hans began playing piano at age four, and started composing at age five. At age seven, he won first prize in The Korea Times Music Competition, and also held his first piano solo recital.
The evening will continue under the guidance of the exceptionally talented conductor Aziz Shokhakimov of Uzbekistan, with Antonín Dvoák’s optimistic Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88; the pastoral character of which was inspired by the folk music of this famous Czech composer’s homeland.
Aziz was born in Tashkent in 1988 and began studying at the Uspensky Music School for musically gifted children at the age of six. He first studied the violin and the viola, followed by conducting with Vladimir Neymer.
In addition to his concert schedule, Aziz is an active opera conductor.
Antonín Leopold Dvoák (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition.
Following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedich Smetana, Dvoák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia.
Dvoák’s own style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them”.
Community / Entertainment
QPO opens year of novelty, excitement with orchestral concert on September 7
MAESTROS: Aziz Shokhakimov, left, will conduct the concert and Hans H. Suh will play piano with the orchestra during the first concert ‘Dvo?k symphony no. 8’.
