Tchaikovsky’s Symphony nº 1 leads Winter Daydreams, Sinfónica de Tenerife’s fourth concert in the 2019-2020 season to take place on Friday the 29th at 7:30 pm in the Auditorio de Tenerife. The orchestra will play under the baton of Gergely Madaras, in his first time leading the Cabildo’s ensemble.

In this new show the Sinfónica de Tenerife is shrouded in a post-Romantic halo that looks to classicism and European nationalisms to perform, in addition to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony nº 1, The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana and the Flute Concerto in D Major op.283 by Carl Reinecke. 

Bedrich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride is a forerunner in exploring the Czech character and it set the path for other authors like Antonín Dvórak. Smetana’s second opera is a comic piece about a love trio in a rural Czeck area; its initial strains develop into a frantic melody that goes through different voices in the orchestra, slightly recalling Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. With this music, the author portrays the fun in a village on a holiday, including its chatter and bustle. Although this work got a cold reception due to the threat of a Prussian invasion and because the audience did not quite see themselves portrayed in those rural characters, it gradually became one of the fundamental pieces of Czech music.

The Flute Concerto in D Major op.283 by Carl Reinecke will be played in Tenerife for the first time. Written in 1908, the piece has a Romantic touch despite being contemporary with the first vanguards, and it includes a combination of proposals and languages. A very brief choral creates the atmosphere that marks the movement and after a false flute entry, it is the violas and the clarinets the ones that present the main theme. The growing rhythm gradually turns the simple initial melody into a powerful ending that leads to the last movement, in which Felix Mendelssohn’s influence can be appreciated.

Symphony nº 1 in G minor Op. 13, by Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, also known as Winter Daydreams, was the first project the Russian maestro embarked on when he obtained the chair of harmony at Moscow’s Conservatoire in 1866. In the score the author tackles his admiration for the European composition principle, fundamentally German, and his interest for his country’s folklore.

Inspired by a night journey across Russia and by his oneiric world, the vast landscapes, the snow and the stars are the images that frame the first movement. His composition has a circular structure therefore, the elements of the introduction are repeated at the end. This piece concludes with a bright, triumphant tutti, based on popular musical airs. Tchaikovsky wanted to show his technical command to his master; hence the energetic, exaggerated end which is an ironic gesture about the difficulty of finishing any creative process, especially when what is expected from a young composer is at stake.

Gergely Madaras is the current musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal of Liège and principal conductor of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra. He has been guest conductor of prestigious orchestras including the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, Philharmonia, Filarmonica della Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Filarmónicas de Copenhague y Oslo, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, among others.

He is also an established conductor of opera repertoires having led the English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Hungarian State Opera and Grand Théâtre de Genève. Gergely keeps a close relationship with new music and has approached more than one hundred works composed after 1970. He has also collaborated closely with composers Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, György Kurtág and Péter Eötvös.

The versatile Swiss artist Sébastian Jacot is one of the most brilliant flute players of his generation. This is the first time Jacot, who was dubbed “flute rock star’ on his appointment as Solo Flutist at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra - is playing on the island. His outstanding work took him to Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra when he was 18. Sébastian has received first prizes at major international competitions such as the Kobe International Flute Competition (2013), the Carl Nielsen International Flute Competition (2014) or the Munich ARD Music Competition (2015). 

His solo engagements have taken him across Europe and Japan to perform at top concert halls. His skills have also made him an outstanding saxophonist and an ice-skating champion. He is currently taking part as a dancer, acrobat and musician in the Project 1001 Lives by choreographer Juliette Rahon, in addition to preparing a circus and musical show with his five siblings.

Tickets for this subscription concert can be purchased at the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday; by phone on 902 317 327; or via the internet on www.sinfonicadetenerife.es and www.auditoriodetenerife.com.