First Warner Music Prize winner Augustin Hadelich plays Mozart’s “Turkish” Violin Concerto at HK Phil’s Mozart and Strauss concert (6 & 7 November)

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[29 October 2015, Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is proud to present Augustin Hadelich, the winner of the first Warner Music Prize, in concert on 6 & 7 November in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. The performances will be conducted by outstanding young conductor Karina Canellakis.

Mozart’s Vienna was fascinated by Turkish culture, and he excited contemporary audiences with these exotic flavours in both the Violin Concerto no. 5 and The Abduction from the Seraglio Overture, which will be played in the first half of the concert.

The Concerto features Augustin Hadelich, hailed by the New York Times as a “brilliant young violinist, with magisterial poise and serene control”. The 31-year old violinist has just been announced the winner of the first Warner Music Prize, a new award that recognises young classical musicians of exceptional talent who performed at Carnegie Hall during the 2014-15 season. 

On the podium for this concert is Karina Canellakis, a young conductor whose career is already taking flight. Recognised by the Solti Foundation as an outstanding talent, mentored by Sir Simon Rattle and Jaap van Zweden, she recently was chosen to stand in for Niklaus Harnoncourt, making her European debut performances with the celebrated Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

In the second half of the concert the audience will hear more colourful and exotic music, this time from Richard Strauss. Firstly, music from his bewitching fairytale opera, Die frau ohne Schatten, a work which calls for enormous orchestral forces and is rarely heard in the concert hall as a result. And in a final burst of exotic wonder, the HK Phil will play the notorious Dance of the Seven Veils, from the opera Salome. The title character seductively sheds one veil at a time to seduce King Herod – the reward she demands will be none other than the head of John the Baptist.

Masterworks: Mozart & Strausswill be held on 6 & 7 November(Fri & Sat), 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: HK$480, $380, $280, $180 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

Artists
Karina Canellakis, conductor [full biography]
Karina Canellakis is currently the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony. She is the recipient of the 2015 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award for musicians.

Augustin Hadelich, violin [full biography]
Augustin Hadelich is the Gold Medallist of the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, and the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has performed with the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony and the NHK Symphony.

Masterworks: Mozart & Strauss
6 & 7 | 11 | 2015
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$480 $380 $280 $180
Tickets are now available at URBTIX

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Karina Canellakis Photo Credit: Masataka Suemitsu	Augustin Hadelich Photo Credit: Rosalie OConnor	The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Philip Chau/HK Phil

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director: Jaap van Zweden

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) has recently returned from an extremely successful five-country, seven-city tour of Europe, with concerts in London, Vienna, Zurich, Eindhoven, Birmingham, Berlin and Amsterdam. Most concerts were sold out, there were standing ovations, and the reviews were universally positive. The concert in Vienna’s Musikverein was filmed for broadcast on TV. With a history stretching back to 1895, when it was formed as the Sino-British Orchestra, the HK Phil was re-named in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974.

Thanks to significant subsidy from the Hong Kong Government and long-term funding from Principal Patron Swire, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and other supporters, the HK Phil now boasts a full-time annual schedule of classical music concerts, pops concerts, an extensive education programme, and collaborations for staged opera with Opera Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ning Feng, Matthias Goerne, Lang Lang, Yu Long, Yundi Li, the late Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuja Wang and Edo de Waart, the HK Phil’s previous Music Director.

The HK Phil promotes the work of Hong Kong and Chinese composers through an active commissioning programme, and has released recordings featuring Tan Dun and Bright Sheng, each conducting their own compositions, on the Naxos label. Its acclaimed community engagement programme brings music to ten of thousands of children annually. A recording was issued free to schoolchildren throughout Hong Kong of Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony.

This season is Jaap van Zweden’s fourth as Music Director of the HK Phil. With him, the orchestra is undertaking major expansion and new projects, including the first-ever performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung. The four operas are being performed, one a year, in concert and recorded live for the Naxos label.

The Swire Group has been the Principal Patron of the HK Phil since 2006. Through this sponsorship, which is the largest in the orchestra’s history, Swire also endeavours to promote artistic excellence, foster access to classical music and stimulate cultural participation in Hong Kong, and to enhance Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the great cities of the world.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
SWIRE is the Principal Patron of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is a Venue Partner of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre

 

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