Great artists grace a new 2016-17 MPO season

The new Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) season at the DFP Hall promises many musical delights. The new season is a testament to the very innovative and interesting programming led by the General Manager of the MPO, Timothy Tsukamoto, who is doing a superlative job which has resulted in some very delightful premieres for the coming concerts for 2016-17.

The choir of Clare College, Cambridge under its conductor Graham Ross kick off the season with a concert of Fauré's Requiem, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture in a choral version.

Famous maestros like Vladimir Ashkenazy and Roberto Abbado are the star attractions of the season. A key concert highlight is of Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture (a premiere), Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations (with cellist Li-Wei-Qin) and Shostakovich's epic Symphony No 8 under maestro Ashkenazy.

Roberto Abbado offers two diverse programmes. One programme features an Italian theme with Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, Paganini's Violin Concerto No 5 (yet another premiere, with soloist Sergei Krylov), Berio-Boccherini's Ritirata notturna di Madrid and Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. The other concert offering consists of extracts from Wagner's Parsifal and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

There are also some excellent violinists who will perform mainly standard violin concerto repertoire like the Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky. The violinists are the 27-year old Ray Chen in the Beethoven, Kolja Blacher in the Brahms and Nemanja Radulovic in the Tchaikovsky.

Mahler also graces the season with performances of the First Symphony and songs from Das Knaben Wunderhorn (yet another premiere at the DFP Hall), with German baritone Matthias Goerne and conductor Guillaume Tourniaire. Maestro Yoel Gamzou returns this season with his very own completion of Mahler's Tenth Symphony after a very successful debut here in Mahler's Ninth Symphony earlier in 2016.

Popular piano works like the Grieg, Schumann and Beethoven's Fourth piano concertos are also to be heard this season, with soloists Vadim Kholodenko (Grieg), David Fray (Schumann) and Stephen Hough (Beethoven). Perennial local pianist Tengku Irfan performs Bartok's Second Piano Concerto in a colourful programme, led by one of the MPO's new resident conductors, Harish Shankar.

Other interesting musical fare are concerts of JS Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (also another premiere for the DFP), with 3 different conductors - Radek Baborak, Benjamin Bayl and Maurice Steger. Baborak also plays Glière's romantic Horn Concerto and leads the MPO in Dvorak's epic Seventh Symphony.

The 2016-17 MPO season promises many concerts of varied fare, with great artists in wonderful repertoire. For further information, visit www.mpo.com.my or call (03) 2331 7007 or 2331 7008.