Glamorous and captivating – that was the gala concert of the Freundeskreis Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
Concertgoers were welcomed to the Tonhalle Zurich with a midnight blue gala carpet, lanterns from Dîner Musical 2023 and colourful wildflowers in the vestibule. Artistic Director Ilona Schmiel and the President of the Freundeskreis Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Dr Thomas Sauber, warmly welcomed the guests and thanked them for their valuable support before the concert, which was rated "exceptional" by "bachtrack", i.e. five out of five stars, began.
Paavo Järvi called the world-famous violinist Janine Jansen one of his "favourite soloists", and the NZZ wrote "[...] that nobody, really nobody, can hold a candle to her at the moment". The sympathy between soloist, orchestra and Järvi was evident to the invited members of the Circle of Friends during Sibelius' Violin Concerto. Perhaps the Finnish "landscape music" also sensitised our Estonian music director and the violinist, who comes from the Netherlands, to the connection between the sound. Whatever the reason, after the first part, the guests went into the interval energised after an emotional encore by Janine Jansen.
After Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio espagnol" op. 34 had been played in the first half, the second half featured his "Scheherazade" op. 35, in which our concertmaster Klaidi Sahatçi made his mark. Afterwards, all concertgoers were able to enjoy an aperitif riche and the streaming of the opening match of the European Championship in the concert foyer. The musicians mingled with the members and created a great atmosphere.
The concertgoers celebrated the fantastic evening until shortly before midnight!
If you would also like to be part of such an event - and at the same time support the orchestra on its artistic journey - we cordially invite you to join the Freundeskreis Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich!
Translated with DeepL.com
