The stage is set to formally inaugurate the France – Qatar Year of Culture 2020 today at Katara Opera House where concertgoers will cherish the classical western music.
The cultural year will see exhibitions of art works by legends, including Pablo Picasso, classic French movies, music performances, and French food festivals.
The opening event of the year-long activities is presented by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) with the name of ‘Opening Concert of France – Qatar Year of Culture 2020.’ The concerts that expects classical western music lovers in great numbers will start at 7:30pm.
The opera will be conducted by Marc Piollet and iconic Lise De La Salle will be at piano. The programme includes Camille Saint-Saëns’s composition Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22 – Andante sostenuto Allegro scherzando Presto.
The work of Haamed Hussein Naama from Doha Secrets Symphony that will be played at the concert is Fourth Movement. Hector Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique, Op. 14 R veries, Passions A Ball Scene in the Country March to the Scaffold Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath.
Conductor Marc Piollet studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Masterclasses with John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Gielen and Kurt Masur had a formative influence on his musical development. After early posts as first Kapellmeister at the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle and the Staatstheater Kassel, he was music director of the Vienna Volksoper. From 2004 until 2012 he was general music director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.
As guest conductor he has worked with leading opera houses including the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, the Bavarian State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Vienna State Opera.
Apart from his highly successful work as an opera conductor, Marc is in high demand also for the symphonic repertoire, appearing with orchestras worldwide including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.
In just a few years, through her international concert appearances and her award-winning Naïve recordings, Lise de la Salle has established a reputation as one of today’s most exciting young artistes, and as a musician of uncommon sensibility and maturity. Her playing inspired a Washington Post critic to write, “For much of the concert, the audience had to remember to breathe...the exhilaration didn’t let up for a second until her hands came off the keyboard.”
A native of France, now living in Paris, de la Salle first came to international attention in 2005, at the age of 16, with a Bach/Liszt recording that was selected as ‘Recording of the Month’ by Gramophone Magazine. De la Salle, who records exclusively with the label Naïve, was then similarly recognised in 2008 for her recording of Liszt’s, Prokofiev’s and Shostakovich’s first concertos – a remarkable feat for someone only 20 years old. Her most recent recording offers works of Schumann, including Kinderszenen and the C Major Fantasy, which was released in 2014.
De la Salle has played with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. She most recently made her London Symphony Orchestra debut with Fabio Luisi, who had invited her to become the first ‘Artist-in-Residence of the Zurich Opera’ in 2014. She has also appeared frequently with the Maestro and the Vienna Symphony, including a performance in New York on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center. In America, de la Salle has played with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival, San Francisco Symphony and three times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others.
During the 2014-2015 season, de la Salle was heard with Jiri Belohlavek and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra, Philippe Auguin and the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.
A sought-after recitalist, she has recently been presented to enthusiastic audiences and critics in major series in New York, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, and at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London and the Louvre in Paris. She also takes pleasure in educational outreach and conducts master classes in many of the cities in which she performs.
Composer Haamed Hussein Naama was born in 1949 in Qatar. He graduated in 1975 at the Higher Institute of Arabic Music in Cairo, continuing his higher education in music composition and orchestral distribution in the Philippines and a training course in orchestral direction in Great Britain.
French composer and pianist, Camille Saint-Saëns, (1835-1921) was one of the most prolific composers of the second half of the nineteenth century. His operas, concertos, symphonies and chamber music marked the evolution of French music at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Hector Berlioz, (1803-1869) the passionate, ardent, irrepressible genius of French Romanticism, left a rich and original oeuvre which exerted a profound influence on nineteenth century music.
CONDUCTOR: Marc Piollet
