On Children’s Day, we invite you to a wonderful concert filled with works for both the youngest and older music lovers! The programme includes the beloved, colorful works by Camille Saint-Saëns and Edvard Grieg, but also a catchy piece of a lesser-known composer Robert Oetomo, an Australian percussionist hailing from Indonesia.
The concert will begin with the Carnival of Animals – a suite named by Camille Saint-Saëns a kind of “zoological fantasy”. In each of the fourteen miniatures, the composer presented individual animals in a humorous way, although he also created the musical illustrations of fossils and ... pianists! The suite opens with the Introduction and the Royal March of the Lion, followed by the Chickens and Roosters, then the Kulans bursts forward, the slow Turtle, the walking Elephant. We will also hear jumping Kangaroos or the colourful fish in the Aquarium, as well as a lyrical melody illustrating the charm of the Swan. In the finale, there is an enthusiastic parade of all the animals, as if saying goodbye. The work by Saint-Saëns will be played after Robert Oetomo’s Concerto No. 1 for marimba and strings. Exceptionally warm and soft timbre of this percussion instrument comes to the fore in the composition, enchanting the listener with various, exotic sounds.
The evening will end with the sounds of Edvard Grieg’s orchestral suites. The Peer Gynt Suite No.1 op. 46 and the Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 op. 55 were composed in 1888 and 1891, respectively, as music to a drama by Norwegian writer Henryk Ibsen. Peer Gynt was, in fact, a selfish fool and adventurer, banished from his native village, wandering around the world. Already the first of the suites brought the composer fame, with the joyous Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King, the swashbuckling finale referring to mysterious Scandinavian sagas, being among the most recognizable melodies of classical music.