Opera Tickets Italy

The highly acclaimed Armenian-Austrian violinist and conductor Emmanuel Tjeknavorian takes up the baton for a carefully selected programme of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Venice's Teatro Malibran. Tjeknavorian, who serves as the Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, leads the esteemed La Fenice Orchestra, an ensemble based in Venice.

The concert opens with a rousing rendition of Beethoven's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43, drawn from a ballet score he wrote in 1800 and 1801. First performed on 28 March 1801 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the overture is marked by its relatively moderate tempo at the start which soon gives way to a lively allegro. The ballet focuses on the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus, the Titan best known for stealing fire from the gods. The overture was not written to accompany any part of the ballet's choreography. Instead, it establishes the dramatic character of the work before the action begins.

Next on the programme is Symphony No 4 in A major, Op. 90, which Mendelssohn initially completed in 1833 before revising it somewhat the following year. Known as The Italian, this symphony was first performed for the London Philharmonic Society on 13 May 1833, prior to its revisions, with the composer himself conducting. The work is one of unbridled joy, expressing Mendelssohn's exuberance as he travelled through Europe from 1829 to 1831. Specifically focusing on the time he spent in Italy during his travels, the work was described by the composer as the jolliest he ever wrote. Mendelssohn would go on to make further revisions but the symphony was only published in its original version posthumously in 1851, which is still the one most often performed today.

The concert's finale consists of Tchaikovsky's ever-popular Symphony No 4 in F minor, Op. 36. Composed in 1877, the work premiered on 22 February 1878 at a Russian Musical Society concert in Moscow. Written in the standard four-movement arrangement so typical of its time, the work is highly charged, expressing the composer's gratitude towards his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, whom he described as his best friend. The second movement is particularly noteworthy for its melancholic tone, first expressed in a mournful oboe passage. In the final movement, a Russian folk melody is introduced as a secondary theme which Tchaikovsky keeps returning to in different keys until the vigorous, almost triumphant, coda brings the symphony to its dramatic conclusion.

With Emmanuel Tjeknavorian conducting, a maestro who has worked with the likes of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC before, this concert featuring three greats of 19th-century composition at Teatro Malibran in Venice will delight all lovers of the rich orchestral traditions of the period.