Korean conductor Han-Na Chang will wield the baton when the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra performs Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka Suite and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony No 6 at the Katara Cultural Village Opera House on Saturday from 7.30pm.
This will be the first performance of the Philharmonic in Doha since its appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.
The Pathétique is Tchaikovsky’s final symphony. Four days after Tchaikovsky conducted its first performance, during supper with friends, he ordered a glass of water that was served with the warning ‘that it had not been boiled’.
Nevertheless Tchaikovsky drank it without apparent thought to the dangers of cholera. Eight days after that first performance, Tchaikovsky was dead, from cholera. The symphony is in turn despairing, passionate, restless and triumphant, before playing out to a mere wisp of sound.
Petrushka is a ballet that premiered in 1991 with the title role performed by Vaclav Nijinsky.
Petrushka, a puppet of straw and sawdust, comes to life and develops emotions. Many of the melodies are based on Russian folk songs. Stravinsky’s score for Petrushka is brilliant, charming and fascinating, one of the most magical scores in all the classical literature.
Lauded from the US through Europe to the Far East and Australia for her extraordinary musicianship, Han-Na Chang is emerging as one of the brightest conducting talents.
Catapulted to international attention at the age of 11 as the winner of the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in 1994, the list of her notable supporters soon grew to include such significant figures in the music world as Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Antonio Pappano as well as Mstislav Rostropovich himself.
Turning her focus more and more to the podium, she has upcoming conducting engagements at the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli.
“Our audiences are fortunate to be among the first to see Han-Na Chang as a conductor,” said Kurt Meister, executive director of the Qatar Philharmonic. “She brought new life to the classical world as a cellist; now she’s doing the same on the podium.”
The next performance of the Qatar Philharmonic will be for chamber orchestra with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings on June 27.
On June 30, Han-Na Chang again conducts the full Philharmonic in a programme that includes Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and the world premiere of Lebanese composer Houtaf Khoury’s Angel of Light Piano Concerto.
