MUSICAL ALLIANCE Third Concert

Chamber Evenings Series

MUSICAL ALLIANCE

Third Concert

THE CONCERT IS HELD IN KAZAKH AND RUSSIAN

An evening of chamber masterpieces from the works of the classical chamber composer Joseph Haydn and the representative of neoclassical music in the 20th century Alfred Schnittke will be featured in the concert series “Musical Alliance”. The concert programme will be presented by violinists: Honored Worker of Kazakhstan Bagdat Abilkhanov, Anel Shakirova, cellist Yermek Kurmanayev and the Astana Opera Chamber Orchestra.

The first cello concerto, often performed and beloved by the public, was written by J. Haydn in the early 1760s. For a long time, it was considered lost, but later the manuscript scores were found in the archives of the National Museum in Prague.

This is music that the 33-year-old composer wrote for his friend – the 25-year-old talented virtuoso Joseph Franz Weigl, a cellist in the orchestra of Prince Esterházy. It contains all the accepted elements of virtuosity of that time: leaps from the lower to the upper register, rapid passages requiring perfect coordination and great skill. Additionally, at a certain point, the cellist needs to imitate two instruments playing in counterpoint.

 

Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 for two violins and chamber orchestra will be presented as a contrast to Haydn’s cello concerto. The composer referred to his own compositional method as polystylism. This is a technique of composing music where the author “assembles” their work like a collage from various fragments in different styles. Atonal music may be followed by a theme in the style of Baroque or Romantic music and then by a banal song.

Each style carries a particular authorial thought or emotion, and these stylistic codes are quite easily discernible. For example, in Schnittke’s work, the Baroque style (Vivaldi, Bach) is synonymous with an ideal but lost world. And the style of atonal, dissonant music typically expresses the chaos of the modern world.

Polystylism is always vivid, clear, highly effective, somewhat shocking, but never boring. Proof of this can be found in Concerto Grosso No. 1.

PROGRAMME:

Johann Sebastian Bach. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041

I. Allegro moderato

II. Andante

III. Allegro assai

 

Johann Sebastian Bach. Brandenburg Concerto No.4 G major, BWV 1049

I. Allegro

II. Affettuoso

III. Allegro

 

Joseph Haydn. Cello Concerto No.1 in C major

Moderato

Adagio

Allegro molto

 

Alfred Schnittke. Concerto Grosso No.1 for two violins and chamber orchestra

I. Preludio

II. Toccata

III. Recitativo

IV. Cadenza

V. Rondo

VI. Postludio

PERFORMED BY:

Yermek KURMANAYEV (cello)

Bagdat ABILKHANOV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan (violin)

Anel SHAKIROVA (violin)

Alexey KOSYREV (flute)

Alexander TARASKIN (flute)

Piano: Bekzat AKHMEROV

ASTANA OPERA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Conductor – Abzal MUKHITDIN, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

Tickets purchased at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre “Astana Opera” are subject to exchange and refund only in cases of cancellation or postponement of performances. In all other cases, no refunds or exchanges will be made.