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| | Arts Calendar / October 20 / Concerts |
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20:00 | Morten Harket (Norway) |
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 As the vocalist for A-HA, Morten Harket was considered as just another '80s MTV pretty boy. Born in Kongsberg, Norway, Harket learned how to play piano at the age of four; raised on classical music, Harket was oblivious to rock and pop artists until he was 16. Harket originally wanted to become a priest; however, when he joined the rock group Bridges, he had to quit his theological studies to find time for his band. In 1983, Harket formed A-HA with Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, harmonica, vocals) and Paal Waaktaar (bass, guitar, piano, vocals). When A-HA released the video for "Take On Me" in America in 1985, critics tossed darts at Harket's pin-up looks, dismissing him as a Simon Le Bon clone. However, A-HA's debut album Hunting High and Low was much more diverse than "Take On Me" suggested, and Harket spilled his pain with a high-pitched falsetto over a bed of acoustic guitars and electronics long before Thom Yorke of Radiohead reaped awards and platinum albums for doing it. Harket's stunning vocals finally acquired critical acclaim with A-HA's second album, Scoundrel Days, in 1986. In 1987, Harket's voice could be heard in the James Bond adventure The Living Daylights; A-HA peformed the film's theme song. In addition to his work with A-HA, Harket has recorded three solo albums, Poetenes Evangelium, Wild Seed, and Vogts Villa. In 2000, Harket's haunting vocal work on A-HA's Minor Earth Major Sky mesmerized critics, drawing comparisons to Neil Young, the Verve, and R.E.M. Morten's fifth solo album, Out Of My Hands, topped the charts in Norway, hit number three in Germany and was Top 30 in Austria, France and Switzerland. In Britain, the BBC said "there's a dignity to Morten Harket's first solo album since A-HA split." Following the release of the landmark Out Of My Hands, there was a busy two years touring, refocussing and looking forward. Of the period leading up to this, when he knew A-HA were nearing the end of the road, he says "I was expectant about the time to come. I was open to see what would happen." Morten's new album, Brother, has arrived two years after its predecessor Out Of My Hands. "It really is a very different place to be now," says Morten Harket of his current mind-set and new album Brother. "I feel very strong about Brother. I might have wanted a good, solid break after my last album Out Of My Hands and all the work. But I didn't feel like that. I wanted to get started while the engine was still hot, still running." Instead of taking time out or stepping back to rest, Morten grabbed hold of the energy driving and surrounding him, and harnessed it to thrilling effect on the emotive, heartfelt and passionate Brother. With Brother, his - along with fans and anyone open to music's power to move - expectations are fulfilled. Brother is a total artistic statement. The roots of Brother are in Out Of My Hands. Morten's new album reunites him with fellow Norwegian Peter Kvint. Together, they had co-written three of the songs on Out Of My Hands. The partnership has now gone further: Morten and Peter have co-produced Brother, which has been recorded with Peter at Stockholm's Studio Brun. The music for all-but-one of Brother's songs are collaborations between Morten and Peter. For a lyrical partner, Morten turned to Norwegian poet Ole Sverre Olsen. Ole Sverre had collaborated with Morten on his Wild Seed album released in 1995, early in the period when A-HA were on hold before they came back together in 1998. Morten, with Peter Kvint and Ole Sverre Olsen, had crafted songs for Brother which are his most fully realised, most personal. Setting Brother in the context of both his long life as an artist and where he is now, Morten takes a moment. He pauses. After some time reflecting, he stresses his feelings about his new album. More info
Crocus City Hall  |
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19:00 | Russian Philharmonic and Valeriy Sokolov |
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Performers: Moscow City Symphony - Russian Philharmonic, Valeriy Sokolov (violin). Conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky. The program includes Overture to the opera "Genoveva" by Schumann, Concerto # 5 for violin and orchestra by Mozart, Concerto for violin and orchestra by P. Tchaikovsky. The concert will be presented as the part of series "New Generation of World Stars". Valeriy Sokolov is in ever-increasing demand for his astonishingly mature interpretations of some of the most difficult works in the violin repertoire. Recent and forthcoming concerto performances include with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine and NDR Radiophilharmonie. Highlights also include recitals at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Verbier and Colmar Festivals and at his own festival in Kharkov, Ukraine (now in its second year). His recording of concertos of Bartok and Tchaikovsky with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and David Zinman will be released on EMI/Virgin in October 2011. He has worked with such esteemed conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ivor Bolton, Andrey Boreyko, Peter Oundjian, Vasily Petrenko, Hubert Soudant, and Yan Pascal Tortelier. He has also appeared with orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteumsorchester, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Halle; and at the festivals in Aspen, St. Denis and Gstaad. In February 2008, he gave the US premiere of Boris Tichenko's Concerto for Piano and Violin at Carnegie Hall. Valeriy appears regularly at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in recital and is a frequent guest in the "Grands Interpretes" series at the Auditorium de Lyon and at London's Wigmore Hall. He has also performed at the Kissinger Sommer, Lockenhaus, Ravenna and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern festivals, and recently gave his first performances at the Lincoln Center, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Essen Philharmonie and in Vancouver and Hong Kong. A keen chamber musician, Valeriy enjoys regular collaborations with pianists Kathryn Stott, Evgeniy Isotov and Denis Matsuev; violinists Vadim Repin and Renaud Capucon; and cellist Leonid Gorokhov. Exclusively signed with EMI/Virgin Classics, Sokolov is developing a strong and varied catalogue of recordings.
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall |
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