MASTERWORKS CONCERT
Presented by the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka
Dushyanthi Perera, whose insights into the composer’s vision and knowledge regarding performance technique have helped steer the SOSL to a number of excellent performances, will conduct the SOSL’S Masterworks concert. The concert programme will comprise Chopin’s Piano concerto no. 2 and Beethoven’s monumental Symphony no. 3, the Eroica. Beethoven’s Eroica was revolutionary. It was written during revolutionary times. Revolution was in the air and Beethoven, too, was fighting his own inner demons. He had just written his Heiligenstadt testament to his brothers’ where he finally acknowledged his despair over his deafness. He even contemplated suicide but took control of his emotions and life, saying," only a little more and I would even have ended my life. Only my art, that is all that held me back. It would have been impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth everything that was within me."
Beethoven’s Eroica has been interpreted as being autobiographical. Its themes of despair and struggle alongside sounds of triumph and celebration have been analyzed as being a kind of personal narrative, where he realised within himself that he was a hero for overcoming tremendous difficulties and turbulent emotions. In 2016 it was voted the greatest symphony of all times, in a poll of over 150 conductors from around the world.
What is in no doubt is that Beethoven’s Third Symphony changed the course of music. Julian Clef, who has won many accolades and awards for his piano performances in India and overseas, will perform Chopin’s romantic piano concerto. At an early stage in Julian’s career, International concert pianist Benjamin Frith concluded, “Julian has a musical and pianistic maturity well beyond his years. He gives performances of great beauty, without mannerism or distortion.
Already very experienced, he is totally composed on stage and he possesses a remarkably relaxed technique with which he brings the music so vividly to life”.
Chopin’s piano concerto was written as a showpiece for the composer’s own mastery of the piano. He was the first soloist of this concerto and was hailed as a national hero in Poland after the first performance. In this concerto the piano is unashamedly the star. The orchestration seems merely an accompaniment to the solo piano, which allows the pianist to display virtuosic skills.
The concert programme will comprise Chopin’s Piano concerto no. 2 and Beethoven’s monumental Symphony no. 3, the Eroica