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the British conductor Daniel Harding will lead the OSR, before swapping his wand for…an airplane! First piano concerto written by Frédéric Chopin, the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 demonstrates very early on the undisputed genius of the composer. The finale refers to the traditional Polish dance, the Mazurka, from which Frédéric Chopin was so beautifully inspired. The French composer Eric Tanguy, on the other hand, will transport the audience with Matka, which means “journey” in Finnish.
Eric Tanguy
Matka, for the orchestra
Frédéric Chopin
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F minor op. 21
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 4 in A minor op. 63
Daniel Harding is Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with whom in 2017 he celebrated his 10-year anniversary, and Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years. In the 2014/15 season he devised and curated the celebrated Interplay Festival with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, presenting a series of concerts and related inspirational talks and installations involving artists, academics, scientists and philosophers. The influential programming continues to be a popular feature at Berwaldhallen. A renowned opera conductor, he has led critically acclaimed productions at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Theater an der Wien, Wiener Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and at the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals. He continues to work regularly with the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 he was named Artistic Director of the Anima Mundi Festival. He is a qualified airline pilot.
Born in 1944 in Lisbon, the pianist Maria João Pires gave her first concert at the age of four and was nine years old when she won Portugal’s Jeunesse Musicale Competition, which was followed by a series of additional awards. In 1961 she received a grant enabling her to continue her studies with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel in Germany. Her international career began in 1970 when she won an international competition marking the 200th birthday of Beethoven. Important stages in her career have included her debuts in London (1986) and New York (1989). In 1987 Claudio Abbado engaged her as soloist for the first tour undertaken by the newly founded Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and he also conducted Pires in her Vienna Philharmonic debut in 1990. Today she concertizes all over Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Israel. Appearances during the 2015-16 season included with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony; in the current season she will work with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and undertake a European tour with the Artemis Quartet. Her repertoire focuses on the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin. Educational work plays an important role for Maria João Pires as well: in the course of her teaching she founded the “Partitura” project, which engages both young and experienced artists in non-competitive, friendly interactions, while her “Equinox” project provides musical support for disadvantaged children under the age of 14. Her CDs have garnered many awards.