Tickets are now on sale for the 2018/19 International Concert Series at St David’s Hall, Cardiff and we are delighted to announce that WNO Orchestra will be taking part once again.
Two of our concerts will be conducted by our Music Director, Tomáš Hanus, and the third will be led by Conductor Laureate Carlo Rizzi who returns to the ICS for the first time since 2008. Tomáš has received huge critical acclaim for his St David’s Hall concerts, forging an immediate connection with the audience and he thoroughly enjoys programming music that has strong links with WNO’s opera seasons. Carlo also has a great relationship with Cardiff audiences, not only from his WNO performances but also his work with students at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and earlier association with Cardiff Singer of the World.
Our first concert, conducted by Tomáš, takes place on Sunday 4 November, and the programme is comprised of pieces by Rossini, Elgar and Janáček. Opening with the unmistakable William Tell Overture, the Orchestra will then be joined by young Armenian Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan for Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Op 85. Following the interval, Tomáš brings us two pieces by his fellow countryman Janáček. Guest soloist Gustáv Beláček takes to the stage for the Forester’s Monologue, taken from the passionately lyrical opera The Cunning Little Vixen. The concert is then brought to a close with Janáček’s celebratory Sinfonietta.
As we enter the new year, Carlo Rizzi takes the helm for the next concert on Sunday 27 January where he and the Orchestra are joined by violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, who received a rapturous reception when he joined us in North Wales in May 2018. The first half of the concert takes us to Scotland, with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy Op 46. For the second half, we move to Russia and Rachmaninov’s ever popular Symphony No 2.
Tomáš returns for our final appearance at the ICS on Wednesday 20 March, with a programme featuring Richard Strauss, Mozart and Brahms. Soloist for this concert is internationally renowned pianist Paul Lewis CBE, joining the Orchestra for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 27, K595. The evening begins with Strauss’s tone poem Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op 28 based on the stories of the German peasant folk hero. We conclude with Brahms’s Symphony No 3, Op 90, a piece which captures an inescapable sense of tranquillity and calmness.
We’d love you to join us at one or more of these concerts. Tickets are now on sale from St David’s Hall.