The opening concert of the season will be held in the auditorium on the coming Sunday and Monday. The orchestra, under the direction of music director Maestro Yoel Levy, will play Prokofiev, Sibelius, Ravel and a tribute to the 40th anniversary of the First Lebanon War. The concert will be played by the acclaimed violinist Maxim Vangrove, who is considered the best string player in the world
Published on: 9.9.22 10:17
The Haifa Symphony Orchestra opens the 2022/23 season at the Haifa Auditorium with the first concert as part of the great classical series. The orchestra will be conducted by its musical director, Maestro Yoel Levy. The orchestra will perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto and Ravel’s Cygnet together with the acclaimed violinist Maxim Vengerov.
Some consider Maxim Vangrove to be the best string player in the world. Vengerov won the Grammy, Gramophone and Artist of the Year awards and has recently achieved great success as a conductor in addition to the great demand for him as a violinist-vocalist, a role he began at the age of 5. He studied with Galina Turchaniova and Zachary Baron and already as a child won significant competitions in the field. He often records for the leading companies including EMI, Melody, Teledec and others. Graduated with honors conducting studies with Yuri Simonov at the Ippolitov-Ivanov Institute in Moscow. Worked as a conductor with the Montreal and Toronto orchestras and was appointed principal conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra.
In addition, the orchestra will perform Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius and mark the 40th anniversary of the First Lebanon War with a world premiere of “1982 – Symphony No. 2” by composer Oded Zahavi, which he wrote from his experiences as a tankman in the war.
The title of the piece alludes to a decisive and formative year in Zahavi’s personal biography in which he served as a tankman in the war. In this work, the composer tries after four decades to bring up memories and fragments of memories, feelings and thoughts from that period. This work does not come as a protest, but reflects a personal struggle and flashbacks. The piece lasts 20 minutes and in its first part it returns to these places. In the second part, the work symbolizes another struggle in which the creator seeks to be lyrical and at the center of it – the melody. The third part is a tribute from the creator to the composer Mark Labrie with whom he identifies, who searched for the harmony between his musical world and the physical reality in which he lived.
Maestro Yoel Levy will begin his second season as the orchestra’s musical director. Levy served as the principal conductor of the Korean Broadcasting Authority Orchestra, the music director and principal conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He also served as the chief conductor of the Flanders Radio Orchestra, which he promoted to playing at international standards, and was the chief conductor of the French National Orchestra “Ile-de-France” in Paris for 7 years. Among the orchestras he has conducted are the Berlin Concert House, the Boston Symphony, the Budapest Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Copenhagen Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Prague Philharmonic and the US National Symphony.
Season opening concert of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Sunday and Monday, September 11-12, 8:00 p.m., Haifa Auditorium. Ticket price: NIS 175 (retiree price: NIS 129). for purchase
Maestro Yoel Levy (Photo: KBS)