10th Chamber Music Festival Chania

10th Chamber Music Festival Chania

Aimez-vous Brahms...

26 August- 1 September 2022

Minoa Palace Resort - Archaeological Site of Aptera

This year, the Chamber Music Festival Chania completes its first decade in the service of one of the most delightful and 'adventurous' aspects of the European serious music repertoire.

Our inexhaustible love for music, the recognized prestige and creativity of the performers, and our fine and hospitable venue at the Minoa Palace Resort have made the Festival one of the most important and anticipated artistic events of the Greek summer.

This year, the Festival's thematic core is the work of the great German Romantic Johannes Brahms, a composer who brought symphonic grandeur to the chamber music repertoire. Much-loved works of his will be performed by a host of fine musicians and will also interact with the work of other composers who influenced, or were influenced by, Brahms.

The Festival is marking its tenth anniversary by expanding beyond the Minoa Palace Resort for the first time, specifically into the archaeological site at Aptera, where its closing concert will be staged in collaboration with the Region of Crete with the valuable assistance of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania. Entrance will be free for the public. As a cultural crossroads over many centuries, as well as a site of crucial archaeological importance, Aptera is the ideal venue for the final concert of this anniversary year.

UNDER THE AUSPICES AND SUPPORT OF:
Ministry of Culture & Sports - Greek National Tourism Organisation

WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Region of Crete - Municipality of Chania

Grand Sponsor:
EMresorts

Sponsor:
Alpha Bank

EVENTS' SCHEDULE

Friday, August 26^th, 21.00

Conference Hall, Minoa Palace Resort

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 - 1897)

Variations on a theme by Schumann for piano, four hands, opus 23

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Scenes from Vienna), opus 26

BEDŘICH SMETANA (1824-1884)

Piano trio in G minor, opus 15

Vassilis Varvaresos, piano
Titos Gouvelis, piano
Trio Zimbalist:
Josef Špaček, βιολί
Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, violoncello
Mario Montore, piano

Vassilis Varvaresos and Titos Gouvelis, regular collaborators of the Chamber Music Festival Chania for many years now, play together at the same piano for the first time. The theme of the Brahms variations they will perform four-hands is the last musical idea Robert Schumann committed to paper before his attempt at suicide. Of course, Schumann's musical ideas are generally of the highest artistic value, as his youthful piano masterpiece Carnival Scenes from Vienna clearly demonstrates. Rising stars on the international chamber music scene, the Trio Zimbalist, all of whom are graduates of Philadelphia's renowned Curtis Institute, make their Festival debut with one of the most charming trios ever written: the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana's sensuous offering.

Sunday, August 28^th 2022, 21.00

Conference Hall, Minoa Palace Resort

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 - 1897)

Trio for horn, violin and piano in E flat major, opus 40

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841 - 1904)

Piano quintet no. 2 in A major, opus 81

Kostas Siskos, horn
George Demertzis, violin
Noé Inui, violin
Iason Keramidis, violin
David Bogorad, viola
Angelos Liakakis, violoncello
Vassilis Varvaresos, piano
Mario Montore, piano

It is with great pleasure that the Chamber Music Festival Chania invites a horn player to join its staff for the first time. Kostas Siskos, the Athens State Orchestra's first horn, perform Brahms' lyrical horn Trio accompanied by the great Greek violinist George Demertzis and the leading Italian pianist Mario Montore. The concert ends with one of the most impressive quintets ever written. The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, for whom Brahms was an important mentor, channeled all his melodic talents and expressiveness into his quintet, serving up a long, dramatic narrative that literally takes your breath away.

Monday, August 29^th 2022, 21.00

Conference Hall, Minoa Palace Resort

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 - 1897)

Piano trio no. 1 in B major, opus 8

ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD (1897 - 1957)

Piano Quintet in E major, opus 15

Noé Inui, violi
Iason Keramidis, violin
David Bogorad, viola
Angelos Liakakis, violoncello
Titos Gouvelis, piano

Trio Zimbalist:

Josef Špaček, violin
Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, violoncello
Mario Montore, piano

The music of Erich Korngold, one of the most impressive child prodigies ever born, isn't heard that often, at least in Greece. But its beauty is such that no one who experiences it can come away unmoved! His Piano Quintet, written at a time when Korngold was at the height of his popularity, radiates grace and delicacy alongside its irrepressible virtuosity. The concert also features a performance of Brahms' youthful and hugely popular First Trio by the Trio Zimbalist, in the final form the composer bestowed on it in the last years of his life.

Wednesday, August 31^st, 21.00

Conference Hall, Minoa Palace Resort

FRANZ LISZT (1811 - 1886)

Tristia (3rd version of Obermann's Valley) for piano trio, S.723a

OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879 - 1936)

Piano Quintet in F minor (1902)

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 - 1897)

Piano Quartet no.1 in G minor, opus 25

Noé Inui, violin
Iason Keramidis, violin
Josef Špaček, violin
David Bogorad, βιόλα
Angelos Liakakis, violoncello
Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, violoncello
Vassilis Varvaresos, piano
Titos Gouvelis, piano

Brahms' Piano Quartet occupies a prominent place in the concert repertoire, thanks to its combination of the dynamic and the melodic. His Quintet has always been equally popular; it actually inspired the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi to write a quintet of his own (1902) entirely within the spirit of Brahms' music. Still, no tribute to Brahms would be complete that failed to turn the spotlight onto the composer's great rival, Franz Liszt. Brahms would transcribe Obermann's Valley, one of his most frequently played piano works, into an alluring piano trio towards the end of his life.

Thursday, September 1^st, 21.00

Ancient Theatre of Aptera

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 - 1897)

String Sextet No.2 in G major, opus 36

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 - 1847)

String octet in E flat major, opus 20

George Demertzis, violin - viola
Noé Inui, violin
Giorgow Daskalakis, violin
Giannis Mageiropoulos, violin
Georgios Chliavoras, violin - viola
David Bogorad, viola
Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, violoncello
Angelos Liakakis, violloncello
Kostis Spyridakis, violoncello

The Chamber Music Festival Chania will be marking its tenth anniversary, and looking optimistically ahead to the future, by expanding beyond the hall of the Minoa Palace Resort Conference Centre for the first time this year. In the enchanting archaeological site at Aptera, Crete's emblematic ancient city, renowned string virtuosos and young up-and-coming string performers join forces to perform Johannes Brahms' Sextet and Felix Mendelssohn's Octet. Both works are essentially small symphonies for strings, whose warm and sensuous sound they foreground.

THE CONCERT IS PART OF ΤΗΕ CRETE FESTIVAL.

CO-PRODUCTION WITH THE REGION OF CRETE AND THE Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion

Information: www.chambermusicfestival.gr

Ticket price for the concerts at Minoa Palace Resort:

• 15 € & 7 € (students, people up to the age of 25 years, unemployed & people with disabilities)
• All-inclusive 5 days concert tickets: 40 €
• For the concert at the Ancient Theater of Aptera: Free entrance with passes.

Reservations of tickets/passes:

TICKET SERVICES
- box office: Panepistimiou 29, Stoa Pesmatzoglou, Athens
- telephone: 2107234567
- online: www.ticketservices.gr