InClassica Marks First Week With Concert Featuring Sergei Dogadin

InClassica 2021 is the biggest and most ambitious music festival to ever take place in the Middle East, welcoming a staggering 37 world-renowned soloists, 7 celebrated orchestras and 11 leading conductors to Dubai for a 30-day celebration of sublime musicianship, world-class performance and international collaboration. InClassica is pleased to present the biggest names in classical music today, featuring performers from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, for an unrivalled programme of phenomenal concerts taking place at the Dubai Opera and Coca-Cola Arena. The festival features a range of music from distinguished historical European composers, as well as works from the event’s Composer-in-Residence, Alexey Shor. 

Last night at InClassica

Four Seasons of Manhattan
Dubai Opera 

As a violinist of vibrant energy, impeccable taste and rich sound, Sergei Dogadin was the ideal soloist for Camille Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, a typically French piece of music, full of sensitive elegance, the parfum of the Parisian salons and grandiose virtuosity. Dogadin also played the solo violin in Alexey Shor's Four Seasons of Manhattan, a very personal approach to the change of seasons in the American metropolis. As the conductor of the Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev showed a distinct Russian perspective on the cycle of seasons that inspired Alexander Glasunov to write a ballet evoking a tableau painted with delicate colours and sublime orchestration.

Sergei Dogadin (violin):
 - On working with Mikhail Pletnev and the RNO: “The impressions from working with the Russian National Orchestra are the warmest. It was as if I had fallen into my own family, although I had never played with maestro Pletnev before and was not even personally acquainted. I was a little worried, but the calmness that comes from the maestro, the benevolence, it's worth a lot. It seems to me that not only the soloists feel this, but the musicians of the orchestra.”
 - When asked about the repertoire: “For a year now I have been familiar with the work ‘4 seasons in Manhattan’ by Alexey Shor, I played it several times with different orchestras in several cities. I have known the composer himself for many years and I am always happy to perform his works. It is always interesting to touch the musical cycles and see the different views of the composers on the seasons... Personally, I like Spring and Summer most of all in Shor's work, because they are bright for the violin, because you can express yourself not only in some lyrical passages, but also in virtuoso ones, there are cadenzas.”

Quotes From Those in Attendance:

“I really enjoyed it, a very enjoyable evening” — audience member
“Some really nice works that, although being on a similar theme, were quite different. This was really interesting.” — audience member
“This concert intrigued me as one of my favourite pieces of music growing up was The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. I enjoyed tonight very much so I’m glad I chose to attend!” — audience member

Tonight at InClassica*

Lyrical Beauty
Dubai Opera 

Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kit Armstrong started his career as a child prodigy at a very early age. The young American pianist of British-Taiwanese parentage is a renowned interpreter of Mozart's Sonatas and was acclaimed as Artiste étoile at the Würzburger Mozartfest, in 2016. Thus, he can be considered the perfect interpreter for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20. Opening the concert with the overture to Joseph Haydn's opera Armida, Sergei Smbatyan concludes the evening with Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances that can be seen as a summary of the composer's life.

• Kit Armstrong
• Sergey Smbatyan
• Russian National Orchestra

*Full details (including quotes from performers and attendees) will be available tomorrow. For any enquiries regarding tonight’s performance, please contact us.

Organised by the European Foundation for Support of Culture and SAMIT Event Group, the 2021 Edition of the InClassica International Music Festival is currently underway, with daily concerts taking place until the 26th of September. For more information or to book tickets, please visit the official website at inclassica.com.