Concert evening with Yury Revich and Donka Angacheva at Ehrbar Saal, Vienna

Over het evenement

In this highly‐anticipated concert, hear the mellifluous sounds of classical music by Kreisler, Piazzolla and Frolov at Vienna's treasured and world‐renowned Ehrbar Saal.

Fritz Kreisler

The oeuvre of Charles Gounod fostered the development of the lyrical opera genre, that tried to truthfully convey the life, emotions and the inner world of a simple man. The composer was born in 1818 in Paris and since early childhood showed great interest in music. His mother taught him piano lessons, however she did not want her son to become a musician. But it was impossible to put out Gounod’s passion for music and in 1838 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire. A year later he received the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. That gave him an opportunity to travel to Italy where he developed great interest in sacred and Renaissance music. Being a very religious man, Gounod even wanted to become a priest in 1845, but his love for music stronger and he changed his mind. Nevertheless, he stayed a person of faith his whole life and composed a lot of sacred works, including the famous Ave Maria – a choral composition based on Bach’s Prelude n.1 from The Well‐Tempered Clavier book.
The premiere of his first opera, Sapho, took place by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier in 1851 but got merely a lukewarm reception. Gounod had not won any theatrical success until 1859 when wrote Faust, his grand opera and the gem of his artistic legacy. Even now Faust is one of the most frequently staged operas in the world.

Astor Piazzolla

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni was an Italian Baroque composer of the early 18th century. He is well known as one of the greatest composers of instrumental music, especially known for his concertos. 'Adagio in G minor' was supposedly written by him. His fascinating instrumental music attracted attention from different figures of the Classical scene, such as Johann Sebastian Bach who wrote at least two fugues on Albinoni's themes.

Igor Frolov

Georges Bizet devoted his relatively short life of 36 years to the musical theatre. The opera Carmen, pearl of his oeuvre, is still one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. He was born in 1838 into a musically educated family – his father was a singing teacher and his mother a professional piano player. At the age of 4, young George could already read notes and play the piano, and six years later he became enrolled at the Paris Conservatory. After finishing his studies, Bizet won the prestigious Prix de Rome for his cantata Clovis et Clotilde, that allowed him to work solely on his own compositions for five years. He spent four rather carefree years in Italy from 1857 to 1860 where he travelled, composed and developed his talent. After coming back to Paris, he faced struggles and found it very difficult to achieve recognition for his music. In order to make a living, he gave private lessons, composed light entertaining music and made arrangements of piano works by other composers. In fact, he could have easily become a successful pianist as he was a virtuoso piano player and once impressed Franz Liszt himself with the performance of one of Liszt’s piano compositions. But Georges Bizet did not look for a way to make easy money and was adamant about his intention to only compose music.

In 1872 he wrote two operas, Djamileh and L’Arlesienne, which were received very coldly but now are considered to be a representation of Bizet’s artistic maturity. Soon before his death in 1875, Carmen premiered in the Opera Comique, but the audience’s verdict was rather negative. Never having witnessed public acclaim during his life, George Bizet now is one of the most famous opera composers in history.