The tickets are sold out for this Friday's concert, with Eivind Gullberg as conductor and Alban Gerhardt as a soloist cello

 

 

The Sinfónica de Tenerife (Tenerife Symphony Orchestra) is a project of the Island Council’s Department of Culture that is managed by its Minister of Culture, Enrique Arriaga. This Friday [3] at 7:30 p.m., it offers a new seasonal concert,  and the tickets are sold out. The 'New World Symphony’, one of the best-known works by Anton Dvorak, will be also played. Under the direction of Eivind Gullberg, who conducts for the first time on the island, the programme also includes ‘Orkesterdialogar’ by Vaage and 'Concerto for cello and orchestra', by Edward Elgar with the German cellist Alban Gerhardt playing as a soloist.

During the second part of the programme, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will play the 'New World Symphony'. This is the name with which most of the people know the ‘Symphony No. 9 in E minor’ by Antonin Dvorak. This piece has its origins in the composer's fascination with the United States, where he took up residence in 1892 after being invited to manage the National Conservatory of Music in New York.

Dvorak soon became interested in popular music; especially in black music, the forerunner of what was to come during the 20th century (jazz, swing, rock, blues...) Especially evident in the second of the four movements, the composer's defence of the black spirituals is striking. Likewise, the magical character of some harmonies that several authors relate to his interest in Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, a Native American epic tale.

The concert will begin with the contemporary work, ‘Orkesterdialogar’, by Knut Vaage (Bergen, 1961). This Norwegian composer is better known by his opera ‘Noko kjem til å komm’ (Someone is going to come) composed in the year 2000 and based on the play with the same name by Jon Fosse. During the variation that the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will perform, new style elements are incorporated, such as electronic amplification and sound distortion; the musical dialogue turns into the key factor to define an exceptional organic structure.

The second piece that the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will play on Friday is the 'Cello Concerto in E minor for cello and orchestra' by Edward Elgar, work that was premièred in 1919 with little success. Structured in four movements, this composition is considered a contemplative elegy after the European disaster suffered during the Great War. The score was first played by Pau Casals, but the audience didn't acknowledge his interpretation. It had to wait for Jaqueline Dupré, who became the reference cellist of this work thanks to her different interpretations, always intense.

Eivind Gullberg plays this week for the first time with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. He is artistic director and conductor of the Bergen National Opera, as well as conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest. He has also conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker and the WDR-Sinfonieorchester in Germany; the Symphony Orchestra of Vancouver, the one of North Caroline and Oregon, in North America. He has been at the helm of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockolm; the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, in Holland; Orchestre de Paris and Tonhalle-Orchester in Zürich.

After his early success in several competitions, Alban Gerhardt's international career took off with his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Semyon Bychkov in 1991. Since then, his remarkable collaborations with orchestras such as the Sydney Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the baton of Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Kirill Petrenko and Andris Nelsons. He was recently awarded with the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) 2021 under the concert category thanks to the recent album for Hyperion 'Shostakovich: Cello Concertos' with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. His version of the Suite No. 1 for cello by Britten has over half a million listens on Spotify.

The audience is requested to arrive at the venue well in advance to enter the Auditorium in staggered "waves". By purchasing tickets, you accept the measures implemented by the cultural centre to combat COVID-19. All of the measures, as well as the contingency plan certified by AENOR, can be consulted on our website.