The Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife offers next Friday a journey through Russian music
The cellist Pablo Ferrández, this season's resident artist, is the soloist in a programme to be conducted by Perry So.
The Auditorio de Tenerife is a cultural space linked to the Department of Culture of Tenerife Island Council that is managed by the island’s Minister of Culture, Enrique Arriaga. This Friday 16 April from 19:30 on, the Auditorium will host a concert by the Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife (OST) in which the orchestra will perform a Russian music repertoire with compositions by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Borodin. On this occasion, the ensemble will be conducted by Perry So. The cellist Pablo Ferrández, resident soloist during this season, will feature for the second time.
The programme begins with Eight Instrumental miniatures, by Igor Stravinsky, a piece included for the first time in the repertoire of the OST. The concert will continue with The Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra, op. 33 by Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, in which Pablo Ferrández will take part. To finish, the orchestra will perform Symphony No. 2 in B minor (Heroic Symphony) by Alexander Borodin.
Igor Stravinsky composed Eight Instrumental Miniatures in 1962, an arrangement of his work Les cinq doigts (The Five Fingers) for 15 instruments, a piece that he had created forty years before. The score begins with a childlike melody marked by an orchestra's rich sound that will be repeated throughout the score.
The Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra, op. 33 is a work in which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky pays homage to the grace and lightness of eighteenth-century music. The rococo composition led by the cello, demands great technical virtuosity from the soloist, a role that will be featured this Friday by the Madrid-born cellist Pablo Ferrández.
Over a period of seven years and intermittently, Alexander Borodin composed his Symphony No. 2 in B minor (Heroic Symphony). This composition reveals his Slavic musical influence in which he shows his talent to treat instrumental voices and contrasts with a great sense of timbre or colour and dynamism.
Conductor Perry So returns to lead the Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife after his last appearance in October 2017. The Hong Kong conductor has been assistant to Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel or John Adams and has worked at the head of different orchestras in Cleveland, Minnesota, Houston, Detroit, New Jersey, Nuremberg, Israel or Shanghai.
In April 2008, Perry So received both the First and Special Prize at the Fifth International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in Saint Petersburg. The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded the Diapason d'Or in January 2012 for So’s recording of the Barber and Korngold violin concertos with Alexander Gilman. He has been a frequent guest both at Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl following his stint as an inaugural Dudamel Conducting Fellow of Los Angeles Philharmonic. He also led the Hong Kong Philharmonic in the celebration of the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.
Cellist Pablo Ferrández, artist-in-residence of the OST during the 2020/2021 season, will be making his second appearance with the Tenerife's ensemble this year. The Madrid-born musician was recognised at the Fifteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. He was awarded the coveted ICMA “Young Artist of the Year”, and in 2018 he won the Princess of Girona Award for his "exceptional talent and international projection".
Recent highlights include the débuts at the Hollywood Bowl with Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Bayersichen Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and the collaboration of Anne-Sophie Mutter performing Brahms Double Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Madrid and Oxford; besides his début with Bamberg Symphony, it is also worthwhile to mention his musical collaboration with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Khatia Buniatishvili and the London Philharmonic playing the Triple Concerto by Beethoven.
Ferrández has also played with Filarmonica della Scala under R. Chailly, Mahler Chamber Orchestra under D. Gatti, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony at the Elbphilharmonie, Orchestra Sinfonica Nationale RAI, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, RTVE Orchestra or Orquesta Sinfónica de les Illes Balears.
The audience is requested to arrive at the venue well in advance to enter the auditorium in staggered "waves” to enjoy this cultural experience. By purchasing tickets, you accept the measures implemented by the cultural centre to combat COVID-19, such as the correct use of masks and the attendance to the event only with people you live with. All of the measures, as well as the contingency plan certified by AENOR, can be consulted on the Auditorium’s website.