Media: Sta.si
Author: STA
Date: Thurs., 31. Aug. 2023
Link: https://www.sta.si/3208172/v-sf-koncert-ob-desetletnici-mednarodnega-orkestra-ljubljana
Ljubljana, 31 August - The Ljubljana International Orchestra celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Tonight, it will mark the anniversary with a concert with soloist Nuška Drašček and conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh in the Marjan Kozina Hall of the Slovenian Philharmonic (SF). The concert will revive the memory of two giants of classical music who have always been divisive - Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms.
The concert, which marks the end of the International Orchestral Academy within the framework of the Creative Europe / Sounds of Change for a Creative Europe project, will feature Brahms' Fourth Symphony and Wagner's Five Songs for female voice to verses by Mathilde Wesendonck.
As the producers recall, the split in the 19th century between Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms divided progressives and conservatives. Wagner proclaimed his music to be the music of the future, while Brahms remained a stubborn classicist. Brahms's Fourth Symphony never disappoints listeners. It is full of dialogue, reflections and pictures of nature. And Wagner set five of Mathilde Wesendonck's songs to music during the creation of Tristan und Isolde. Together with Siegfried's Idyll, the songs are Wagner's most frequently performed works, the organisers said.
The orchestra will also perform Sounds of Change’s new work created for the project of the same name and for this year's Academy. The performance will feature Wagner's Mathilde Wesendonck's self-penned works by Nuška Drašček, conducted by Živa Ploj Peršuh.
The Ljubljana International Orchestra has been based in Ljubljana since 2013, with members travelling from all over the world to prepare the programme over several days.
In ten years, the orchestra has brought together at least 800 musicians from 42 countries, performing in Slovenia, Italy and the UK, and collaborating with renowned institutions such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia Rome, Orchestre National Lille and the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The orchestra has been joined by renowned soloists including trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich, violist Gilad Karni, violinist Michael Barenboim, violinist Gregory Ahss and cellist Konstantin Pfiz, double bassist Knut Erik Sundquist, violist Joerg Wikler, clarinettist Jože Kotar, soprano Urška Breznik and tenor Aljaž Farasin, as well as director and composer Heiner Goebbels.
In addition to the orchestra's first conductor and founder Živa Ploj Peršuh, the orchestra has been conducted by Klaus Arp, Uroš Lajovic, Carlo Rizzari, Domingo Hindoyan, Osvaldo Ferreira and Daniele Gatti.
