Event info

Thursday 3 June » 19:30
Emanual Ax plays Beethoven — Iceland Symphony Orchestra
- Concert in honour of Vladimir Ashkenazy

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

PROGRAMME
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony. 4, “Italian”
Frédéric Chopin: Scherzo no. 2 and mazurkas for piano
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto no. 5, “Emperor”

CONDUCTOR
Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason

SOLOIST
Emanuel Ax

With this programme, the Iceland Symphony honours Vladimir Ashkenazy, its Conductor Laureate, for his invaluable contribution to music in Iceland and all over the world. Vladimir Ashkenazy Is indeed a living legend. Few pianists still alive have had such a career, which started with a bang after he won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962. Initially, it was planned that Ashkenazy would conduct this performance, but in early 2020 he announced his retirement from the concert stage. Instead, this concert is dedicated to Vladimir and Þórunn Ashkenazy, who will be present at the performance, as a gesture of thanks for their incalculable contribution to Iceland’s musical life over more than half a century.

Emanuel Ax has been one of the premier pianists in the United States for decades. Winner of seven Grammy Awards and a host of other prizes, he teaches at the Juilliard School and performs all over the world. It is an honor to welcome this world-renowned artist to Iceland for his first performance in the country. Beethoven’s majestic “Emperor” concerto was so named (purportedly by its English publisher, Johann Baptist Cramer) because it was considered the “emperor of concerti”. This concert concludes the Iceland Symphony’s Beethoven birthday bash. Ashkenazy was one of the 20th century’s premier interpreters of Chopin, and to honour him on this occasion, Emanuel Ax will perform several of Chopin’s solo works as a warm-up to the Emperor Concerto.

Further information on the concert can be found on the Iceland Symphony Orchestra website.