Perhaps small in scope but rich in quality

Thessaloniki Concert Hall program on a small budget

The Thessaloniki Concert Hall is about to embark on the new season with a rather restricted program. Its stable, yet meager, funding, which amounts to just 1.5 million euros, has resulted in a very small number of events for the autumn period. Highlights from October to December include a Christmas gala, the concert hall’s 12th opera production, Strauss’s “Salome,” and a concert by the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

The new year will feature two major concerts, with the Salzburg Camerata Orchestra, under the baton of Leonidas Kavakos, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, which will be conducted by distinguished maestro Zubin Mehta.

The season will kick off with a jazz night on October 1, where saxophonist Dimos Dimitriadis and pianist Giorgos Kontrafouris will play classics by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and other composers.

Richard Strauss’s opera “Salome,” a joint production of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall and the City of Thessaloniki, to commemorate the 42nd Demetria Festival, will be staged on October 12, 14, 17 and 20. Directed by Nikos Petropoulos, the production will feature opera singers Daphne Evangelatou, Vangelis Hadzissimos and Maroussa Xyni as well as the City of Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Nikos Athineos. The opera will have Greek supertitles.

Conducted by Georg Schmoehe, the Munich Symphony Orchestra will give two concerts in November. On November 14, the orchestra will perform compositions by Brahms and Beethoven, joined by violinist Simos Papanas, and on the 15th it will perform works by Beethoven only, along with pianist George-Emmanuel Lazaridis.

Dimitris Baslam’s fairy-tale music and narration spectacle “O Gargalistis,” about an eccentric traveler who steals laughter from children who have too much and gives it to children who don’t, will be the children’s event marking the end of the year December 15 to 19. The year will officially end with the annual celebration gala, which will take place on December 23. Tenor Mario Frangoulis will join forces with soprano Deborah Myers, accompanied by the City of Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, under Nikos Athineos.

The concert hall will continue its series of concerts in its foyer as well. Violinist Danae Papamathaiou-Matschke and pianist Uwe Matschke will perform works by Mozart, Beethoven, Ysaye and Brahms on November 5. On November 19, the foyer will host a musical soiree titled “Thessaloniki: Poetry and Music,” with vocalist Dimitris Nikoloudis, and in “Romanticism and Love in Lied,” which will take place on December 10, soprano Marina Vouloyianni will perform works by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Mahler, Brahms, Poulenc and others, accompanied by pianist Nikos Zafranas.

The concert hall will also make an innovative move this season, as some of its concerts will be broadcast live to various Greek provincial towns, starting with Trikala. Concerts will be transmitted with high-quality sound and image, as part of a European program of the Thessaloniki Technical University.