Vasily Petrenko proposes essential pieces of Russian Romanticism for his debut at Les Arts and the Auditori de Castelló
25.11.2022
- Regular conductor of major orchestras such as Cleveland, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, the Berlin Philharmonic or the Leipzig Gewandhaus
- The principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic leads the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in a program featuring works never before performed by the ensemble.
Valencia (25.11.2022). Vasily Petrenko conducts the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in a double concert featuring essential pieces of Russian Romanticism, which will be performed at Les Arts on December 16 and at the Auditori de Castelló on December 17.
The highly sought-after conductor is currently the principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, a position he combines with an intense international career, with commitments to leading European ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as the most prestigious orchestras in the United States: Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
Petrenko will make his debut with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana with an ambitious and attractive program, which, in addition to the dazzling 'Second Symphony' by Sergei Rachmaninov, includes works by the Slavic composers Mussorgsky ('Songs and Dances of Death') and Nikolai Cherepnin ('La Princesse Lointaine' ).
'La Princesse Lointaine' , a personal project of the Petersburg conductor to promote composers little known in the West, such as Cherepnin, will open the evening. The score, a prelude to Edmond Rostand's play of the same name, is considered among the first Romantic works in the Russian symphonic repertoire.
This will be followed by Mussorgsky's 'Songs and Dances of Death', with renowned baritone Roman Burdenko on stage, to sing this cycle of four songs that addresses death in a poetic way and which will be performed in Dmitri Shostakovich's orchestral arrangement.
After the intermission, the resident orchestra of Les Arts, under the baton of Vasily Petrenko, performs Rachmaninoff's 'Second Symphony'. Considered one of the finest scores in the Russian symphonic repertoire, and still unperformed in the OCV's repertoire, the symphony stands out for the richness of its orchestration and the melodic inspiration derived from themes that emerge with sincerity.
The Valencia Symphony Orchestra (OCV) will perform with Vasily Petrenko in Valencia on Friday, December 16, at the Auditori de Les Arts. The following day, Saturday the 17th, the orchestra will visit Castelló de la Plana, where they will present the same program at the Auditori i Palau de Congressos at 7:30 p.m.
Vasily Petrenko
Principal Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic (since 2021) and of the European Union Youth Orchestra (since 2015). He is Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, following his acclaimed tenure as Principal Conductor (2006-2021). He was Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra (2016-2020), Principal Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic (2013-2020) and of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009-2013), and Principal Guest Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, where he began his career as Resident Conductor (1994-1997).
Artist of the Year at the 2017 Gramophone Awards, he has collaborated with the most prestigious orchestras: Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, Philharmonia Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, National Orchestra of France, Czech Philharmonic, NHK and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Montreal.
He has also performed at the Edinburgh Festival, the Grafenegg Festival, and the BBC Proms. He has conducted operas at the Glyndebourne Festival, the Paris Opera, the Zurich Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
