The height of summer means that once again the annual series of Concerts at the Prince’s Palace, Monaco, takes place in the magical setting of the Courtyard of Honour. This festival of music features a host of well known works by some of the best loved classical composers.
The opening concert on July 10th is under the direction of Lawrence Foster, the veteran American conductor who, during his career, has appeared on the stages of the major concert halls of the United States, Europe and Asia, and has held music directions with some of the major orchestras of the world. He leads the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus Overture, Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No 2 and Zoltan Kodály’s Háry János Suite.
The soloist is young Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich, of whom Seen and Heard International writes: “There is an effortless, unbroken purity to Lozakovich’s tone … His playing is extraordinarily beautiful …”. The multi award-winning violinist has performed with orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
On July 20th, Kazuki Yamada, Music Director of the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, takes the podium. Also the Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Yamada leads the Orchestra in Weber’s Jubel Overture, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Brahms’ Symphony No 4.
The piano soloists are Dutch brothers Lucas & Arthur Jussen, regarded amongst the Netherland’s foremost ambassadors for classical music. Artists in Residence at the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic this season, the brothers have also performed in Europe, Israel, the US, the UK and in Latin America, with some of the major orchestras of those countries, and with a wide range of works in the concert repertoire. “It is like driving a pair of BMWs”, exclaimed conductor Michael Schønwandt about the two pianists after directing them in concert.
On July 31st Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit leads the Orchestra in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1, Ravel’s lovely Valses nobles et sentimentales and The Pines of Rome by Respighi. Maestro Dutoit – recipient of two of the most prestigious honours in the music world, the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Premio una Vita nella Musica 2022 from the Teatro La Fenice in Venice – has enjoyed long directorships with the Montreal Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and the NHK Symphony of Tokyo.
The soloist in this performance is French pianist David Fray – also known as a recitalist and chamber musician. He has appeared with many of the finest orchestras in Europe and the United States, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, and Orchestre de Paris as well as the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and in recitals in Carnegie Hall and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York.
On August 3rd, conductor Tianyi Lu leads the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic in a performance of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, his Piano Concerto No 4 and extracts from Prokofiev’s gorgeous score to the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Tianyi Lu, whom conductor Carlo Rizzi described as having “great musicality, understanding of the different repertoire, a natural charisma on the podium”, has been Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Conductor-in-Residence with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway and Principal Conductor of the St Woolos Sinfonia, Newport, in the UK. Also a conductor of opera, Lu led performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, and she conducted the world premiere of Celeste Oram’s Marie & Pierre at Theater Basel.
The soloist is Latvian pianist Georgijs Osokins who gained international recognition at the age of just 19 as a finalist in the 2015 Chopin Competition. Since then he has appeared at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, with Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Theatre Hall. He has been a permanent guest artist with Kremerata Baltica since 2019, and honours which he has received include Poland’s Cross of Merit (silver) and Latvia’s Grand Music Award, whose previous recipients include Elīna Garanča, Mariss Jansons, Gidon Kremer and Andris Nelsons.
The final Concert in the Prince’s Palace which takes place on August 7th is led by Emmanuel Tjeknovorian, son of the Iranian-Armenian composer and conductor Loris Tjeknovorian. In the 2020/21 season, Emmanuel Tjeknovorian made his conducting debut not only with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, but also with the Camerata Salzburg and the Sinfonieorchester Basel. Known mainly for his success as a violinist – he was the youngest Artist in Residence in the history of the Vienna Musikverein – he intends to focus more on conducting in the future. In this performance, he leads the Orchestra in Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No 1, Max Bruch’s lovely Violin Concerto in G minor, Richard Strauss’ tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and Johann Strauss’ The Blue Danube.
Sergey Khachatryan is the solo violinist in the Bruch Violin Concerto. The Armenian violinist, described by L’ape musicale as “an exceptional soloist … [a] violinist of impeccable technique …….”, appeared during last season with orchestras such as the Dresdner Philharmonie, Korean National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, and in Australia with the Queensland Symphony and the Auckland Philharmonia. He also accompanied the Basque National Orchestra on a tour of Spain and the Armenian National Philharmonic on a North American tour. Two years ago he appeared with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic at the Prince’s Palace playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto, and most recently he appeared in Montreal playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.
The Concerts at the Prince’s Palace by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra take place in the Courtyard of Honour between July 10th and August 7th. Further information and details of ticketing can be found on the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra website.
Information sourced from OPMC programme notes
Artists’ websites
This article first appeared in Riviera Buzz
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