On July 16, a large-scale closing of the Astana Opera’s 10th anniversary season will take place at the Grand Hall. A program created by the Astana Opera’s principal conductor, world-famous Maestro Alan Buribayev, will be featured for the audience, El.kz cites astanaopera.kz.
The premiere of the Suite from the opera Qurmanghazy by Akhmet and Gaziza Zhubanovs will be the highlight of the evening, as well as works by Antonín Dvořák and Gustav Mahler.
The Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, laureate of the State Prize of Kazakhstan Alan Buribayev will present the audience with a real celebration of high art. The famous cellist of global standing, Jing Zhao, will perform for the first time in Kazakhstan. The celebrated musicians will present works by outstanding composers at the closing of the anniversary season and the Operaliya International Festival, held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“We will start the evening with the premiere of the Symphonic Suite from the opera Qurmanghazy by Akhmet Zhubanov and Gaziza Zhubanova, thus emphasizing that one of the most important aspects of the Astana Opera’s work is to support our national art. Akhmet Kuanovich dreamed of writing an opera about Qurmanghazy, but did not have time. Unfortunately, his earthly age was cut short, and therefore his daughter, Gaziza Akhmetovna, completed this work. For the concert performance of the suite, I chose several bright symphonic excerpts from this powerful opera. Gaziza Akhmetovna’s instrumentation is colorful; the drum part of the orchestra has been expanded: tom-toms, bongos, maracas, bells, vibraphone, xylophone and other percussion instruments bring a special zest to the orchestration of Qurmanghazy. Next, together with the famous, magnificent cellist, Jing Zhao, we will perform Antonín Dvořák’s masterpiece – his cello concerto. We previously worked together with her in Japan, and I am very glad that she accepted the invitation to perform in Astana. And we will end the concert and the anniversary theatrical season with Mahler’s grand Symphony No. 1 “Titan”. When I first started working here, I immediately set an ambitious goal: to perform all of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies with the Astana Opera Orchestra. Gustav Mahler is one of the most important composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the performance of his symphonies is always a huge event. Almost all of his symphonies were written for a colossal orchestra, and the level of requirements for performers can easily be called virtuoso. We have already played his Second, Fifth and Eighth symphonies, and after that it is quite natural to perform the super-original First, to find out how it all began, and for us it will be a great joy to realize that we and our orchestra are already approaching the middle of the cycle of all of Mahler’s symphonies,” Alan Buribayev spoke about the details of the evening.
In turn, Jing Zhao shared her emotions and memories in anticipation of a significant event for the opera house.
“I met Maestro Buribayev in Japan in 2016. Everybody was telling me that I have to play with Maestro Buribayev, he is a wonderful conductor, and I told my manager I will come to Japan and play with the Maestro. I performed Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with him. I was very impressed at the rehearsal, the Maestro has such sensitivity, he feels immediately what the soloist wants, and I didn’t even need to talk! And he immediately goes to the point to tell what the orchestra needs; he has this magic and power to take the music out of each musician, of course the orchestra started to sound better and better,” the instrumentalist emphasized.
Jing Zhao herself has a sharp musicality and virtuosity. She has established herself internationally as one of the most versatile cellists of her generation. She began her musical education in China and Japan with generous help from Maestro Seiji Ozawa. After that she continued her studies at the Karajan-Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Despite the wide geography of her touring, Jing Zhao will perform at the Astana Opera for the first time.
“Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor is one of the most important concertos for all the cellists in the world; it is like a symphony to me. The orchestra part is like the sea, and the cello solo part is like a boat in the sea, or universe and star. It has incredible orchestration and there is no other concerto for cello that has such incredible orchestration as Dvořák’s cello concerto. This concerto has everything; it is grand, beautiful, deep, and emotional. The cello part shows the instrument’s capabilities and this work is structured as a master composition. And every time it is a challenge for the soloist to perform it,” Jing Zhao concluded.