Manama: The Qatar Philharmonic is set to perform music by Franz Josef Haydn, Claude Debussy, Richard Wagner and jazz bassist-composer Peter Herbert.
Haydn's London Symphony No. 104 in D Major and Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun headline the concert to be conducted by music director Michalis Economou on Saturday.
Melissa Coleman will be the guest artist for Herbert's Timeless Cello Concerto and Wagner's Rienzi Overture will close the programme, Qatar News Agency (QNA) said.
Josef Haydn epitomises the aims and achievements of the classical era in music, which ran from 1750 to 1830. He developed in countless ways the sonata form, the most important structural principle of western music. In over 100 symphonies he created the model for all composers that followed, forever exploring possibilities with wisdom, energy and wit.
His last, London Symphony No. 104 premiered in London in 1795 but soon was performed all over Europe. The final movement shows Haydn's ingenuity in incorporating folk songs and the cries of London street vendors into the music.
Claude Debussy is known as the prime example of impressionism in music, but this easy label obscures the originality of his thinking. His Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was written for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russe and the famous dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky. Like the Stephen Mallarme poem on which it is based, Debussy's music evokes atmosphere and a state of mind more than ideas. With Nijinsky s choreography and costumes by Leon Bakst, the 1912 piece is considered one of the earliest of modern ballets.
Peter Herbert is both a composer and a jazz bassist who has worked with Marcel Khalife, Paul Simon, Franz Koglmann and countless other famous musicians. His Timeless Cello Concerto will be played by Australian Melissa Coleman. Since winning the international cello competition in Liezen, Austria, Coleman has lived in Vienna, working as a composer, arranger and improviser together with individual artists, modern dance and theater companies, and on multimedia projects. She has recorded about 35 CDs with various ensembles, especially the Koehne Quartet.
"This is an eclectic programme that will delight and challenge our audience in different ways," Kurt Meister, executive director of the Qatar Philharmonic, said. "We are proud to bring three masterworks along with fresh, new music to Doha," he said, quoted by the news agency.
The next performance of the Qatar Philharmonic will be May 9, when concertmaster Eugen Bond and two colleagues play Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich piano trios. The full orchestra will play Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the Opera House on May 12, QNA said.
