KSO plays music from Marie Antoinette's court on 10th of October

Published 03.10.2024

Marie Antoinette herself honoring Kuopio Music Centre with her presence

The Kuopio Symphony Orchestra’s season concert on Thursday 10th of October at 6 p.m. takes the audience to the court of Queen Marie Antoinette of France under the baton of the KSO chief conductor Eugene Tzigane. The concert organized at the Kuopio Music Centre’s Concert Hall will feature music from the Queen’s favorite composers: W.A. Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Jean-David Hermann and Christoph Willibald Gluck. French harpist Anaëlle Tourret will be the soloist of Hermann’s Harp Concerto No 1. You can also meet Marie Antoinette herself at the Music Centre when the actors of the Kuopio City Theater visit the concert.

Marie Antoinette was only 14 years old when she married the fresh Prince of Versailles, who later became King Louis XVI. The young queen did not give up her connection to her Austrian roots and surrounded herself with German and Austrian composers.

The KSO’s season concert contains music by the Queen’s favorite composers. Joseph Haydn named Symphony No 85 after her, and Marie Antoinette fell in love with the piece. Young W.A. Mozart, on the other hand, named his 31st symphony Parisian during his visit to the French capital.

The Queen herself was a harpist and harpsichordist under the German virtuoso Jean-David Hermann, who also wrote a series of harp concertos. Hermann’s 1st harp concerto will be interpreted in Kuopio by the French harpist Anaëlle Tourret, who is one of the most sought-after representatives of her instrument and performs both as a soloist and as a chamber musician around the world. She is also a multiple competition winner.

Like many aristocrats of her time, Marie Antoinette was also a lover of theater, opera and ballet, and that is why she favored the opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. At the concert, Gluck’s overture and orchestra suite from the opera Orpheus and Eurydice will be heard, in which the shepherd Eurydice dies and Orpheus goes to fetch her from Underworld.

Marie Antoinette herself and her husband Louis XVI arrive to listen to the concert. There will be also an interview with Marie and Louis at 5:30 p.m. at the Pre-Talk, where they will reveal something about themselves. The couple will be joined at the concert by Marie’s brother and Austrian Emperor Josef and Marie’s good friend Therese de Lamballe. Kuopio City Theater’s actors Lotta Vaattovaara, Santeri Niskanen, Atte Antikainen and Leea Lepistö perform the roles. The Pre-Talk open to everyone is organized before the concert, at 5:30 p.m. at the Hall of Light. At the beginning of the evening, the guitar duo Touko Saranpää and Santeri Piipponen from the Music and Dance Unit of the Savonia University of Applied Sciences will perform.

Tickets: 33 € / 27 € senior citizens and groups min. 20 persons / 11 € children under the age of 16 and students / 4 € concert day discount ticket for students and young people under the age of 20.

KUOPIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Producer & Publicity Manager Elina Prepula, tel. 044 7182364, elina.prepula(at)kuopio.fi
www.kuopionkaupunginorkesteri.fi | Facebook: Kuopionkaupunginorkesteri | Instagram: kuopionkaupunginorkesteri