Andrés Estrada-Orozco will be in charge of directing the “Mendelssohn Fest”, a series of symphonic concerts interpreting the works of the German composer Félix Mendelssohn.
Photo: Juan Diego Castillo
The conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada returns in the 2022 season of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia to present a cycle of three concerts in which the five symphonies that the German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote for full orchestra will be performed.
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The “Mendelssohn Fest” will take place at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá on August 26 and 27, and September 2.
After writing 15 symphonies for string orchestra, Mendelssohn, a compositional prodigy, was 15 years old when he wrote his first symphony for full orchestra and 33 years old when he wrote the last of his production.
His music is characterized by retaining the classical models and practices of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, while also including aspects of Romanticism, the art movement that exalted feeling and imagination over form and rigid traditions.
This is how a new collaboration between the National Symphony and the Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who continues to conduct groups such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the French National Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony, takes place. among other.
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The Orchestra has invited the Javeriano Chamber Choir and the Coroncoro Vocal Ensemble to participate in the Festival, both directed by the teacher Ana Paulina Álvarez, in the interpretation of Mendelssohn’s second symphony, a work that will close this festival of music in Bogotá.
The intention of the National Symphony of Colombia and the maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada, is to recognize and make visible the work of various composers who have marked the history of symphonic music. It is a festival that begins, in its first edition, with Felix Mendelssohn, but year after year it will get a new name, a new composer, a new experience for the public, and above all, a new opportunity to expand knowledge about the great phenomena of symphonic music.
Why make a festival about Mendelssohn?
Director Orozco-Estrada confesses: “we have to show the public that in addition to Mozart, Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, there were composers of impressive talent such as Felix Mendelssohn who also deserve their music to be recognized, listened to and enjoyed”.
Who was Mendelssohn?
Mendelssohn was descended from a large German-Jewish family where intellectual values and morality were firmly placed at the center of any concern. He was a composer, pianist and conductor throughout Europe.
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Esteemed by Goethe, he rediscovered and performed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, conducted music composed by his contemporaries, and made his favorite city, Leipzig, the musical capital of Germany.
Just as his success came very early, he died in 1847 at the young age of 38 devastated by the death of his sister, the pianist and composer Fanny Mendelssohn, and succumbing to overwork.
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“Mendelssohn Fest”: five concerts dedicated to classical music