Grieg / Bartók, A. Chauhan
The esteemed British conductor, Alpesh Chauhan, takes to the stage at Verona's Teatro Filarmonico for a rendition of two outstanding orchestral works, the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, by Edvard Grieg and Béla Bartók's inimitable Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123. Chauhan, the Music Director of the Birmingham Opera Company, conducts the Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona for a spellbinding concert in a venue that is synonymous with high-quality musicianship.
Grieg's Piano Concerto was the only concerto the Norwegian composer ever produced. It was written in 1868 during a happy period in the great maestro's life and was first performed on 3 April 1869 in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, close to where Grieg was living at the time. The concerto consists of three movements, including one of the most dramatic openings ever to have been written for concert music in the first. The finale includes a lively rhythmic passage based on a halling, a Norwegian folk dance. Grieg made several revisions to the concerto in the years that followed. Changes he made in 1872 were followed by further ones in 1882, 1890 and 1895 before his final revision, which included the addition of more horns to the orchestration, was submitted to his publisher just a few weeks before his death. The Piano Concerto in A minor remains one of Grieg's most popular works.
Composed in 1943, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra premiered on 1 December 1944 at Boston's Symphony Hall in the United States. Like Grieg, the Hungarian composer would go on to revise this work, but only once, with alterations he decided upon in February 1945. When the piece made its debut, the term 'concerto for an orchestra' seemed contradictory since there was no soloist required for it to be performed. Bartók explained that he chose this title based on the way he composed for sections of the orchestra in a manner that was designed for each to be virtuosic. The second movement encapsulates this approach and is nicknamed 'Game of Pairs'. In it, woodwind and trumpet duets explore five separate musical ideas, with each pair playing a different interval apart. The Concerto for Orchestra makes use of non-traditional modes and scales to achieve its effect on audiences, one that combines folk elements and more modern, twentieth-century orchestral music.
Born in 1990, Alpesh Chauhan is a rising star who has made a considerable name for himself, serving as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra among other roles. He was educated in conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in England, after having initially studied the cello. With such a talented conductor and two wonderfully evocative orchestral pieces, this concert at Verona's Teatro Filarmonico is set to offer superb musical entertainment.