This July, David Afkham returns to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, serving as an esteemed guest conductor for a series of concerts across Japan. The program pairs Afkham and the symphony with pianist Martin Helmchen for Schumann’s Piano Concerto A Minor, Op. 54, the composer’s only piano concerto and one of {…}
Lili Boulanger, who died young, attracted attention with her precocious music. It is usually described as impressionistic, but the style of her last orchestral work, D’un soir triste, is closer to expressionism. It took Arnold Schönberg much longer to get used to composing for orchestra: the symphonic poem Pelléas et {…}
David Afkham returns to the Orquesta y Coro Nacional de España, where he is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, for three exciting performances of Robert Schumann’s epic secular oratorio, Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, on June 13, 14, and 15. Written between 1844 and 1853, this ambitious three-part work is scored for {…}
On June 5, David Afkham appears at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall, leading the Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real in an exciting gala concert. Entitled A Musical Fantasy from Spain, the concert also features two incredible Spanish artists: violinist María Dueñas and soprano Saioa Hernández, making her American debut. The diverse {…}
On May 16, David Afkham makes an exciting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, bringing his “considerable interpretive insight” (Chicago Tribune) to an expressive and eclectic program. The concert opens with Lili Boulanger’s haunting and deeply emotional D’un soir triste, one of her final compositions, written in 1917–1918 when the {…}
On April 4, 5, 6 and 11, 12, and 13, David Afkham returns to the Orquesta Nacional de España, where he is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, to conduct Mahler’s deeply personal and emotionally intense Symphony No. 6, often called Tragic Symphony. Many consider the work to be eerily prophetic; {…}