---

Pianist: Yulianna Avdeeva

 

Yulianna Avdeeva gained international recognition when she won First Prize in the Chopin Competition in 2010. She has since embarked on a world-class career and her artistic integrity is rapidly ensuring her a place amongst the most distinctive artists of her generation. Described by the Financial Times as an artist who is "able to let the music breathe", Yulianna Avdeeva is always uncompromisingly and profoundly devoted purely to the music itself. Conjuring an impeccable combination of clarity, energy and elegance, Avdeeva wins audiences with her compelling honesty, wit and musical judgement.

 

 

After making her Australian debut in a recital at Sydney Opera House in 2018, Yulianna Avdeeva ventures on a dynamic 2018/19 season which includes invitations from the Sydney and Melbourne symphony orchestras. Further highlights include debuts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Boulez Saal in Berlin, Avdeeva’s return to St Petersburg Philharmonic, and new orchestra collaborations with the City of Birmingham, and Trondheim symphony orchestras.

 

 

The Cologne Chamber Orchestra (Kölner Kammerorchester), founded in 1923 by Hermann Abendroth, is the oldest chamber orchestra of the region. Its first concerts took place under the direction of Hermann Abendroth and Otto Klemperer. Helmut Müller-Brühl took over in 1963 and, in collaboration with numerous international soloists, the orchestra appeared with great success throughout Europe, North and South Americas and Asia, receiving invitations to many international festivals. From 1976 to 1986 the orchestra, under the name Capella Clementina, played on historical instruments, setting a pattern for performance practice and helping to revive baroque music theatre. Since 1988 the orchestra has had its own annual concert series at the Cologne Philharmonic. Over 200 recordings, broadcasts and television appearances document the orchestra’s vast repertoire which, since 1995, has been continually extended by recordings for Naxos. In 2001 the orchestra won a Cannes Classical Award for its recording of Telemann’s Darmstadt Overtures (8.554244), one of a number of acclaimed recordings. Christian Ludwig served as music director of the orchestra from 2008 to 2011. Since then and significantly after the death of Helmuth Müller-Brühl on 3 January 2012, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra has worked with different international guest conductors.

 

 

conductor: Christoph Poppen

 

From the start of his conducting career, Christoph Poppen established an international reputation for innovative programming and commitment to contemporary music. A frequent guest conductor, he has appeared with the Bamberger Symphoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Detroit and Indianapolis symphony orchestras, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, New Japan Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg and at the Biennale in Venice.

 

 

As an opera conductor, he very successfully led a new production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Aalto Theatre in Essen and performances of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide at Staatsoper Stuttgart. In 2016 he returned to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa for a new production of Don Giovanni. He conducted performances of Les pêcheurs de perles at Oper Frankfurt – which led to an immediate re-invitation for Die Zauberflöte – and created the new production of Sing For Me, Death by composer Claude Vivier with the RuhrTriennale company in Gelsenkirchen. In 2017 he conducted Weber’s Oberon in concert version at Opera Köln.

 

 

Mozart: Symphony No.17 in G major, K.129

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K.271

 

- Intermission -

Chopin: Piano Concertos No.2 in f minor, Op.21

Mozart: Symphony No.29 in A major, K.201