Abu Dhabi Classics presents a new season of dynamic, classical and traditional musical performances in the capital.
Audiences can always expect a rich and diverse selection of performances, built on the works of leading composers - a highlight of the cultural calendar.
As well as world-renowned orchestras and soloists, Abu Dhabi Classics brings ballet and the performing arts, and celebrated artists from the Arab world to audiences, in what is considered amongst the strongest arts programming in the region.
Family Concert: Duo Calva
In its attempt to always innovate and reveal new approaches to classical Music, Abu Dhabi Classics is now introducing Family concerts. The objective is to present musicians that perform music in a family friendly way while offering a true high quality artistic performance. This season, the Abu Dhabi Classics lineup will include the entertaining Duo Calva, an association of two cellists, former top orchestra musicians, who are combining classical music and comedy.
Date: 16-17 May 2024
Time: 16 May 2024, 6PM
Time: 17 May 2024, 5PM
Place: Manarat Al Saadiyat
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16 May 2024
17 May 2024
Víkingur Ólafsson: Bach’s Goldberg Variations
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is a phenomenon. Like no other classical musician in the past year, he has managed to combine wide popular success with the highest artistic standards. With his recording of the Goldberg Variations, released in October 2023, he immediately propelled himself into the exclusive ranks of the finest Bach interpreters, his name now being mentioned together with the timeless Glen Gould or Wanda Landowska. His balance between the individuality of each section and the sense of its shape, maintained over the work’s 75 minutes, has been praised in numerous reviews. Víkingur Ólafsson’s unified, flawless, nostalgic, but at the same time life-affirming vision of the work has led to his CD appearing in all the overviews of best recordings of 2023 (for example in the 'Best of 2023' by the New York Times) and has become a sales hit for his label, Deutsche Grammophon.
For his first appearance in the United Arab Emirates, the Icelandic pianist will be offering this magical performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations as part of the famed Abu Dhabi Classics concert series. It will be a true highlight that the country’s classical music lovers will look forward to. The composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, left no instructions as to how the music should be played, allowing a great deal of interpretative latitude. Ólafsson will offer his enchanting, fresh and exciting rendition of the monumental work — one he has adapted to our time, taking the past into account, but also opening its notes to the musical innovations of the 21st century.
Ólafsson’s rendition explores the realities of our modern world, and forms another proof that Bach’s masterpiece really does belong to each time period in which it is played.
Date: 28 May 2024
Time: 8PM
Place: Cultural Foundation
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