Chamber orchestra sets high standards in Greece and abroad
A significant cultural institution in Greece over recent years, La Camerata, the capital’s chamber orchestra based at the Athens Concert Hall and active abroad since its establishment in 1991, will be taking its work to other parts of the capital and cities around Greece. The announcement was made at a recent news conference by its artistic director, Alexandros Myrat, who seized the opportunity to express his belief that the orchestra, founded by the Friends of Music Society in 1991, was now approaching standards he had once envisaged, long before it came into being. «With persistence, for years now, and by placing one block on top of the other, we’ve reached the point of being able to render a full schedule, such as the present one,» Myrat said. «The orchestra I’ve been dreaming about since 1978 is beginning to take shape.» La Camerata’s forthcoming concerts at the Athens Concert Hall will have a variety of guest performers, including violinist Augustin Dumay and pianist Maria Joao Pires, who will join the orchestra for La Camerata’s performance of works by Beethoven on February 1; maestro Salvatore Accardo, who will be on the podium for renditions of Mozart and Bach on February 23; maestro Enrique Barrios, who will focus on Latin composers on March 8, with works by Chavez, Villa-Lobos and Ginastera; and organist Nicolas Kynaston, who will join the orchestra’s ranks for renderings of Poulenc on March 13. Sir Neville Mariner will again be associated with La Camerata this season. The revered Briton will be taking up the baton later in the season for a series of three evenings of Beethoven concertos, with renowned pianist Radu Lupu also on board, on May 16, 18, and 20. Other program highlights include a tribute to Greek composer Manolis Kalomiris and other contemporary Greek composers on December 10; five nights of musical fables to music by Sergei Prokofiev and Thanos Mikroutsikos for the festive season on December 22, 23, 26, 28, and 29; as well as a one-day chamber music festival featuring works by Bach and Mendelssohn on February 19 with the soloists Leonidas Kavakos and Hanna Wainmeister on violin, and pianist Katia Skanavi. An event focusing on piano and strings, titled «For Your Keyboards Only» and scheduled for April 3, will feature four leading Greek pianists, Yiannis Vakarellis, Giorgos Lazaridis, Constantinos Papadakis and Christos Papageorgiou. La Camerata’s dates abroad include a performance, of music by composer Eleni Karaindrou, at Brussels’s Theatre Royale de la Monnaie in March.
