Musical Masters: Ashkenazy and Gabetta Return to the Hong Kong Phil

March 25th 2014 The Hong Kong Philharmonic will host one of their most hotly anticipated concerts of the year next week, as superstar pianist-turned-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta return by popular demand. The April 4th and 5th concerts will see the pair take on works by Elgar and Mussorgsky in a night of classic music that’s not to be missed.

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

  One of the world’s best-know musicians, Ashkenazy first came into prominence in the 1955 Chopin Competition, and broke the mould when he branched out into conducting at the peak of his fame as a pianist. Now principal conductor and artistic advisor of Sydney Symphony, he will return to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, complete with his trademark turtleneck sweater, to direct Elgar’s sunny evocation of Italy, ‘In the South’, and his own orchestration of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’.

Vladimir Ashkenazy

  “A talented and versatile musician, with a charming and generous personality, Vladimir Ashkenazy is equally at home in front of an orchestra as on a piano stool – and equally adored when at either” – Classic FM. Making up the second half of the Ashkenazy and Gabetta Return programme is of course Sol Gabretta, who won her first classical competition at the tender age of 10 and has since worked with ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic and the Bolshoi orchestras and conductors Giovanni Antonini, Charles Dutoit, Mario Venzago and Thomas Hengelbrock. She will be playing Elgar’s final masterpiece, the ‘Cello Concerto’, her recording of which earned her one of her three ECHO Klassik Awards.

Sol Gabretta

  "Sol Gabetta’s Elgar Concerto is one of the best around, a heartfelt, tonally rounded performance... Hers is a softly spoken presence, especially beautiful in those infinitely sad modulations that fall towards the end of the piece" - Gramophone Magazine. A free pre-concert talk will also be given by renowned musicologist Dr Joanna C Lee at 7.15pm on both nights, in English on Friday and Cantonese on Saturday. What: Hong Kong Phil presents Ashkenazy and Gabetta Return When: April 4th & 5th 2014 Where: Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong Price: Tickets priced at HK$480, HK$320, HK$220 and HK$160, purchase via URBTIX Info: Call +852 2721-2332 or visit the HK Phil website.

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