Eastern Sounds of Sheherazade & Darvishi
About the event
No fewer than two cello concertos and two phenomenal cellists on this program, which concludes with the mesmerizing sounds of Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. Two cello concertos…
This Eastern-tinged concert opens with the world premiere of a Cello Concerto by the young Iranian composer Aftab Darvishi. After studying piano in her native Tehran, she studied composition in Amsterdam and The Hague. Her work is on the music stand of the Austrian-Iranian cellist Kian Soltani. With him, the authentic Iranian elements with which Aftab spices her music are in good hands. Fellow cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, a German-French composer, then devotes himself to the Cello Concerto by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. He dedicated this work to the Russian master cellist Rostropovich. It is a fascinating composition that opens with a minute-long cadenza for solo cello.
…and a fairy tale
From Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov comes the beloved orchestral suite Sheherazade, inspired by the famous Tales of One Thousand and One Nights. A frame narrative with Arabic and Egyptian elements. Just as Sheherazade enchants the sultan with her stories, Rimsky-Korsakov manages to capture the listener with Oriental atmospheres.
