Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) resumed its on-stage performance with familiar music compositions that were well received by the audience who enjoyed the live concert first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Both the performers and the audience at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) on Saturday adhered to the Covid-19 safety protocols.
All the 40 orchestra musicians wearing masks and stayed at a distance from each other. Following the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health only 90 people were allowed in Auditorium-3 of QNCC that has 400-seat capacity. There were two separate performances and during the two-hour-long break the auditorium was sanitised.
For the first time, the orchestra played without a conductor because of the Covid-19 challenges, including a ban on travel. French violinist Lyonel Schmit led the orchestra during the hour-long concert. The music performance was packed with classical and romantic concert favourites from Mozart to Tchaikovsky to Beethoven, among others.
The show kicked off with Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A Major. The orchestra further performed Edvard Grie’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata -Prelude to Act I, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Johann Strauss, Jr.’s On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Karl Jenkins’s Palladio, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Op. 71 - Russian Dance, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.
“The hall was not full but we were sold out,” Kurt Meister, executive director of QPO, told Gulf Times. “We performed after seven months. This is the last concert by us this year. We decided to make the programme including different pieces abd something everybody likes. Last quarter of the year we could not do more concerts due to the pandemic. Hopefully, we will start the new year with many more concerts,” he added.
Sharing what the orchestra did during the lockdown months, the QPO executive director said: “We remained very busy. We made videos for different and interesting programmes. Our video – Peter and Wolf – proved very popular among the children. We also created special music for our Arab and Chinese residents here.”
Expressing optimism about future performances, Kurt said that the orchestra is going to perform in January to mark the start of Qatar-US 2021 Year of Culture. We also have lots of recording in January for a huge programme that will be live in February nest year. I hope we will have more musicians on the stage in coming days as the Covid-19 situation is fast improving in Qatar.”
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All the 40 orchestra musicians wearing masks and stayed at a distance from each other. Following the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health only 90 people were allowed in Auditorium-3 of QNCC that has 400-seat capacity. There were two separate performances and during the two-hour-long break the auditorium was sanitised.
For the first time, the orchestra played without a conductor because of the Covid-19 challenges, including a ban on travel. French violinist Lyonel Schmit led the orchestra during the hour-long concert. The music performance was packed with classical and romantic concert favourites from Mozart to Tchaikovsky to Beethoven, among others.
The show kicked off with Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A Major. The orchestra further performed Edvard Grie’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata -Prelude to Act I, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Johann Strauss, Jr.’s On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Karl Jenkins’s Palladio, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Op. 71 - Russian Dance, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.
“The hall was not full but we were sold out,” Kurt Meister, executive director of QPO, told Gulf Times. “We performed after seven months. This is the last concert by us this year. We decided to make the programme including different pieces abd something everybody likes. Last quarter of the year we could not do more concerts due to the pandemic. Hopefully, we will start the new year with many more concerts,” he added.
Sharing what the orchestra did during the lockdown months, the QPO executive director said: “We remained very busy. We made videos for different and interesting programmes. Our video – Peter and Wolf – proved very popular among the children. We also created special music for our Arab and Chinese residents here.”
Expressing optimism about future performances, Kurt said that the orchestra is going to perform in January to mark the start of Qatar-US 2021 Year of Culture. We also have lots of recording in January for a huge programme that will be live in February nest year. I hope we will have more musicians on the stage in coming days as the Covid-19 situation is fast improving in Qatar.”
ends
