Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma
InformationProgrammeThe OrchestraMusic Director/Conductor: Sir Antonio PappanoPiano: Daniil Trifonov (22.11 only)Piano: Seong-Jin Cho (23.11 only)TicketingConcert +
Due to overwhelming response, there are 10 tickets of box seats for the concert on 22 November with restricted view ($300 for each ticket) available for sale at the URBTIX Box Office of Hong Kong Cultural Centre from 10am on the day of the concert. Each person can purchase a maximum of two tickets per transaction on a first come, first served basis.
Limited tickets of 23 November concert available. Act Now!
Italy's premiere orchestra to perform with two acclaimed pianists in Hong Kong
“… orchestra made the music more than simply habitable. They made it vibrant.” The New York Times
The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Rome is an interesting paradox in itself. It is famous for its recordings of Italian operas for the Decca label, but it has almost never performed operas outside of the studio - as the first Italian orchestra to devote itself exclusively to the symphonic repertoire, the Decca recordings were made during the off-seasons. The Orchestra has only a hundred or so years of history, but the academy that it belongs to – the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – is one of the oldest institutions of music in the world, founded in 1585 by Pope Sixtus V, with the composer Palestrina as its first president. The academy has evolved over four centuries to become an academic body of international repute, a symphonic music organisation that carries out professional musical training. It conserves an extremely rich historical patrimony, and its museum has one of Italy's leading collections of musical instruments.
The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Roma has premiered many contemporary masterpieces, such as Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, Pärt’s Cecilia, vergine romana, Dubugnon’s Caprice Romain, Sciarrino’s Euridice secondo Rilke and Henze’s Opfergang. Molinari, the Orchestra's first music director, conducted the first ever commercial recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. However, a crisis emerged at the end of the 1960s and lasted up until the mid-1980s when it was rivalled by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, which featured high profile appearances of world famous conductors like Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta. Apart from the Decca opera recordings and a few exceptions (all featuring vocals), the Orchestra did not record a single symphony for twenty years.
From Markevitch to Pappano
Igor Markevitch left the Orchestra in 1976, but his successor Thomas Schippers died before he could formally assume the post. The Orchestra was without a director until Giuseppe Sinopoli arrived in 1983. Sinopoli managed to restore it to its pride, and expanded its repertoire to include Mahler and Bruckner. But he was not an easy character and it was a love-hate relationship between him and the musicians. After Sinopoli, the Orchestra was variously led by Daniele Gatti and Myung-Whun Chung.
But it was through the acumen of the Academy’s President, the famous composer Luciano Berio, who appointed Sir Antonio Pappano as the principal conductor that the Orchestra rose to a new height. The members fell in love with their new conductor immediately. Since Pappano assumed his post in 2005, this premiere orchestra of Italy has enjoyed more international recognition than at any time in its history.
Born in London in 1959 to Italian parents, Pappano studied piano, composition and conducting in the United States. He moved back to Europe in his twenties and was assistant conductor to Barenboim at Bayreuth. He made his international debut in 1990 as the music director at the Oslo's Den Norske Opera, then served as the music director of the Brussels' Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie as well as the London’s Covent Garden. In 2007, Pappano was named an Active Academician of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He handles all genres of music with ease, from major opera productions to Requiem/requiems, concertos with soloists, or fun pieces like The Carnival of the Animals. Pappano is an athletic conductor in every sense of it; when he's conducting an opera, he needs to change his sweat-soaked shirts at the end of every act.
Music and the palate
Pappano admits that his approach to symphonic music comes from an operatic way of thinking. He says, “I’m of the theatre. For me everything is theatre.” That is not to say he wants the Orchestra to focus on opera (though he does believe every good orchestra should have a balance repertoire between symphonic and operatic works) - his whole approach to music performance is about narrative, about telling stories. He explains that it’s not the one and only approach, but there is a hierarchy in music, and that sense of narrative extends to different balancing issues within the orchestra. Here's an example: at rehearsals, Pappano will ask for a crisper rhythm by telling his musicians that the music should sound like spaghetti cooked al dente, firm and not mushy. Pappano says, “I tend to work like that in my rehearsals, providing images to cajole certain responses, and that works for my orchestra.” He likens the tone of his orchestra to the colour of Amarone wine, made in the Veneto with dried grapes: "Lots of sugar, a very high alcohol content."
The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Roma will perform two concerts on November 22 and 23 in Hong Kong. The programmes will be “mainstream”. The first concert is ‘all Russian’, featuring Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Pianist Daniil Trifonov, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, will be the soloist of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.3. The second concert is ‘all Beethoven’, featuring his Symphonies No. 2 and No. 5, and Piano Concerto No. 3. In the last, Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 2015 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, will be at the piano.
Savio Lau
Editor (Music Section), Hi Fi Review
English translation provided by KCL Language Consultancy Ltd.
22 November concert sponsored by
Mr Albert Hung, GBS, JP Mr Wilfred Ng, SBS, JP
22 November (Thu)
Glinka
Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila
Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
(Piano: Daniil Trifonov)
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
23 November (Fri)
Beethoven
Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36
Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op. 37
(Piano: Seong-Jin Cho)
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Each performance will run for about 2 hours including a 20 minutes intermission . Audience is strongly advised to arrive punctually. Latecomers will only be admitted during the intermission or at a suitable break.
The presenter reserves the right to change the programme and substitute artists.
The Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma was the first orchestra in Italy to devote itself exclusively to the symphonic repertoire, giving premieres of major contemporary masterpieces, such as Respighi's Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, Henze's Opfergang, Pärt's Cecilia, vergine romana, Dubugnon's Caprice Romain and Sciarrino's Euridice secondo Rilke.
Founded in 1908, the Orchestra has been conducted by some of the major musical figures of the 20th century: from Mahler, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Stravinsky, Sibelius, Hindemith, Toscanini, Furtwängler, De Sabata, Karajan and Abbado to the most impressive performers of our day including Muti, Gergiev, Thielemann, Dudamel, Temirkanov while Bernardino Molinari, Franco Ferrara, Fernando Previtali, Igor Markevitch, Thomas Schippers, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Daniele Gatti, and Myung-Whun Chung have been its Music Directors. Leonard Bernstein was the Honorary President from 1983 to 1990.
With Sir Antonio Pappano in the role of Music Director since 2005, the stature of the Orchestra has enjoyed extraordinary success, building an international reputation for itself. With Pappano at the helm, the Orchestra has appeared at some of the major music festivals including the BBC Proms in London, White Nights in St. Petersburg, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival and has performed in some of the most world’s best-known venues, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London, Salle Pleyel and Philharmonie in Paris, La Scala in Milan, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Carnegie Hall in New York, Semperoper in Dresden.
Long-term collaborations with some of the most renowned international record labels helped realising legendary recordings and now the Orchestra records exclusively for the Warner Classics. Under Pappano their releases include Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Verdi's Requiem, Rossini's William Tell, Britten's War Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 6, Verdi's Aida (with Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann), Nessun Dorma, The Puccini Album with tenor Jonas Kaufmann (Best Classical Music Recordings of 2015 for The New York Times), Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 and The Carnival of the Animals with Martha Argerich as well as Leonard Bernstein's symphonies Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety and Kaddish.
Sir Antonio Pappano has been the Music Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma since 1 October 2005; he had already become the Music Director of London’s Covent Garden in September 2002. In the past, he has filled other prestigious positions: in 1990 he was named the Music Director of the Den Norske Opera of Oslo, the theatre where he made his international debut, and from 1991 to 2002 he carried out the same role at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.
Pappano has conducted many of the world’s major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskappelle Dresden and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, he was named ‘Conductor of the Year’ by the Royal Philharmonic Society; that same year he also received the Abbiati Prize for his conducting of the Requiems of Brahms, Britten and Verdi together with the Artistic Ensembles of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. And in 2013 he was honoured at the International Opera Awards as ‘Conductor of the Year’.
On 16 April 2007, Pappano was named an Active Academician of Santa Cecilia. In 2012, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music and in the same year he was appointed ‘Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana’. In May 2015, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Gold Medal - the Society’s highest honours - becoming the 100th RPS Gold Medallist since the honour was founded in 1870. He joins a rarefied group of musicians that includes Brahms, Elgar, Strauss, Stravinsky and Britten.
Grammy Award winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov – winner of Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year award – has made a spectacular ascent in the world of classical music as a solo artist, a champion of the concerto repertoire, a collaborator at the keyboard in chamber music and song, and a composer. Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, his performances are a perpetual source of awe. The Times (UK) calls Trifonov “without question the most astounding pianist of our age.”
Trifonov has made successful recitals and performed with the world’s leading orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. Trifonov curated a seven-concert series for the Carnegie Hall’s Perspective series in the 2017/18 season and is currently the artist-in-residence at the Berliner Philharmoniker for the 2018/19 season.
This fall sees the release of Destination Rachmaninov: Departure, Trifonov’s 6th album as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon Artist, showcasing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos No.2 and 4 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Trifonov won medals at three of the music world’s most prestigious competitions, taking Third Prize in the International Chopin Piano Competition, First Prize in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, and both First Prize and Grand Prix in the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
With an overwhelming talent and innate musicality, Seong-Jin Cho is rapidly embarking on a world-class career and considered one of the most distinctive artists of his generation. His thoughtful and poetic, assertive and tender, virtuosic and colorful playing can combine panache with purity and is driven by an impressive natural sense of balance.
Cho was brought to the world’s attention in Fall 2015 when he won the coveted First Prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He is an active recitalist. In the 2018/19 season, Cho will return to the main stage of the Carnegie Hall in the Keyboard Virtuoso series, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in the Master Pianists series and will play recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal (Berliner Philharmonic concert series) among many others.
Cho collaborates with conductors at the highest level such as Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Antonio Pappano, Myung-Whun Chung, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Temirkanov, Krzysztof Urbanski, Fabien Gabel, Marek Janowski, Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hrůša, Leonard Slatkin and Mikhail Pletnev. Other major orchestral appearances include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Czech Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra, among many others.
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma
Tickets available from 11 August at URBTIX outlets, on Internet, by Mobile Ticketing App and Credit Card Telephone Booking.
“Great Music” Package Discount
For each purchase of standard tickets for 'Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma (22/11 & 23/11 concerts)', 'Violin and Piano Duo Concert by Janine Jansen and Alexander Gavrylyuk', 'Piano Recital by Evgeny Kissin' and 'Kodály Quartet', the following concession applies:
5% off for any 2 concerts, 10% off for any 3 concerts, 15% off for any 4 concerts, 20% off for all 5 concerts.
“Great Music” Group Booking Discount
For each purchase of standard tickets for 'Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma (22/11 & 23/11 concerts)', 'Violin and Piano Duo Concert by Janine Jansen and Alexander Gavrylyuk', 'Piano Recital by Evgeny Kissin' and 'Kodály Quartet', the following concession applies:
10% off for each purchase of 4–9 standard tickets, 15% off for 10–19 standard tickets, 20% off for 20 or more standard tickets.
Half-price tickets available for senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities and the minder, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients (limited tickets for full-time students and CSSA recipients available on a first-come-first-served basis).
Patrons can enjoy only one of the above discount offers.
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