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ety and the Church. Similarly, faced with the mystery
of Creation, Ives concludes that an Unanswered
Question is preferable to a simplistic answer.
Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906–1975), a central figure
in 20th-century music and a virtuoso pianist, wrote
some of his finest works, such as Opus 34 (24
Preludes) and Opus 87 (24 Preludes and Fugues)
for piano. His first piano concerto, Opus 35, which
will be heard in this concert, was written in a happy
period in his life: he was a much-loved Leningrad
composer with a number of successes to his name,
while the shadow of his future disgrace at the hands
of the Stalin regime still seemed distant. The young
composer, an avid reader of Russian authors such
as Gogol, was naturally inclined towards the
grotesque, satire and parody. The piano concerto is
imbued in this spirit. Its centrifugal writing, the con-
trast musical styles and the breaking down of the
boundaries between the serious and the ironic are
sure to excite the listener.
Another emblematic figure of the previous century,
Kurt Weill
(1900–1950) is better known for his work
in musical theatre and for his stormy albeit fruitful col-
laboration with Berthold Brecht, than for his sym-
phonic works. His vocal anti-authoritarianism,
intense public presence and Jewish roots made him
an obvious target when the Nazis came to power in
1933. Fleeing Berlin to Paris and to exile in the March
of the same year, one of the few personal effects he
took with him were the first drafts of his Second
Symphony. The work has all the hallmarks of Weill’s
music, a polystylistic musical idiom encompassing
numerous internal contrasts, and was destined to be
his last purely orchestral composition.
Conductor: Miltos Logiadis
Soloist: Vassilis Varvaresos – Piano
PROGRAMME
Charles Ives
The Unanswered Question (1906 – revised 1930-35
)
Dmitri Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 1, op. 35 (1933
)
Kurt Weill
Symphony No. 2 (1934)
e.m.m.a. SOUNDTRACK
International Meeting for Musicians and Filmmakers
2012, June 29 - July 1 10:00-23:00
Multiple stages of the Centre
The Onassis Cultural Centre - Athens, in collabora-
tion with the Film Studies Department of the Faculty
of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki and the Hellenic Film Academy, pres-
ents the International Meeting for Musicians and
Filmmakers.
Taking a holistic approach to art, education, enter-
tainment and everyday life, e.m.m.a. builds on the
successful meetings it staged in the past two years.
Taking music as a take-off point, the event
embraces and combines different spheres from the
wider realm of film-making.
Students, composers, performers, directors, sound
designers, producers, and art people at large, join
forces with the participants and the general public
to create an interactive forum for exchanging ideas.
Prominent figures of worldwide calibre exchange
views and musical experiences and give seminars
and concerts, shedding light on both the relation
and the interactions between music, the moving
image, sound and performance, as well as on the
special place they occupy in our lives.
Trade with Greece
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