Event info

Vladimir Ashkenazy was the main force behind the establishment of the Reykjavík Arts Festival in 1970 and now conducts the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the festival after a 37-year hiatus. In the interim, he has conducted all of the major orchestras in the world and has made an indelible mark on music history as a conductor and piano virtuoso.

He is joined by a frequent collaborator and one of France's most lauded pianists of today, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Renowned for his work on disc, Bavouzet has won Gramophone awards for his recording of concerto works by Ravel and Debussy with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier, and for his fourth volume of Debussy's Complete Works for Piano. He has also won two BBC Gramophone Awards and a Diapason d'Or, and was named Artist of the Year at the 2012 International Classical Music Awards. His upcoming engagements include opening the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York, and a performance at the BBC Proms in London. Bavouzet has performed with leading orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. He will perform one of his signature pieces, Maurice Ravel's lively Piano Concerto in G major, widely considered one of the composer's masterworks. 

Vladimir Ashkenazy's interpretation of Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 at the inaugural concert at Harpa in 2011 was an unforgettable experience for guests. At this concert, Ashkenazy conducts the most graphic of Beethoven's symphonies, the Pastoral, a work teeming with innocent joy, sounds of nature, babbling brooks, and birdsong – not without stormy weather, although the skies clear after a time.

The tale of Romeo and Juliet, the most famous love story of all time, provided the inspiration for Tchaikovsky in this fantasy overture, which explores the full range of human emotion.

Vovka Stefán Ashkenazy, that originally was supposed to perform at the concert has canceled his appearance. 

PROGRAMME
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Romeo and Juliet
Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto in G major
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony no. 6, “Pastoral”

CONDUCTOR
Vladimir Ashkenazy

SOLOIST(S)
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet