RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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TEHRAN – Internationally renowned Iranian composer and conductor Ali Rahbari will take the stage on September 26 at the prestigious Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, officially marking the start of his sixth artistic season at this renowned venue.
In the concert, he will conduct the Mariinsky Orchestra, performing works by great composers from around the world, including the German composer Richard Wagner, Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg, and French composer and conductor Hector Berlioz.
The concert repertoire includes “The Siegfried Idyll” by Wagner, which is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra, “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1” by Grieg, which is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play “Peer Gynt,” and “Symphonie fantastique,” which is a programmatic symphony written by Berlioz.
Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) was a German composer, theater director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas, although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. He first achieved recognition with works in the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but revolutionized the genre through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), which sought to unite poetic, musical, visual, and dramatic elements. In that approach, the drama unfolds as a continuously sung narrative, with the music evolving organically from the text rather than alternating between arias and recitatives. Wagner outlined those ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realizing them in the first half of his four-opera cycle “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (The Ring of the Nibelung).
Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia.
Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869) was a French Romantic composer, conductor and critic. His output includes orchestral works such as the “Symphonie fantastique” and “Harold in Italy,” choral pieces including the “Requiem” and “L'Enfance du Christ,” his three operas “Benvenuto Cellini,” “Les Troyens” and “Béatrice et Bénédict,” and works of hybrid genres such as the dramatic symphony “Roméo et Juliette” and the dramatic legend “La Damnation de Faust”.
Rahbari, who was appointed “permanent guest conductor” of the Mariinsky Orchestra by decree of Valery Gergiev, the legendary and celebrated conductor of Russian orchestras, has over the past five seasons successfully presented 28 varied programs, earning the confidence and wide acclaim of audiences and critics alike. During this period, he has brought a broad spectrum of the world’s classical music masterpieces—as well as distinguished Iranian works—to the stage.
Ali Rahbari, 78, embarked on his musical journey at the age of five, learning to play the violin. He graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts in 1971, specializing in composition under the tutelage of Gottfried von Einem, and completed his conducting studies in 1974, guided by Hans Swarovsky. He is a laureate of international conducting competitions, securing the gold medal in Besançon, France (1977), and the silver medal in Geneva (1978).
He has conducted over 120 orchestras worldwide, including Orchestra della Svizzera Romanda, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, French Chamber Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Prague Symphony Orchestra.
He has served as the principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, receiving the Dvořák Medal in 1985 for his collaboration with the ensemble, and also led the Belgrade Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Belgian Radio and Television Orchestra (later becoming its principal conductor from 1988 to 1996).
Rahbari was the principal conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virtuosi di Praga chamber orchestra. From 2000 to 2004, he was the chief conductor and musical director of the Malaga Symphony Orchestra, Spain.
In 1997, Rahbari formed the Persian International Philharmonic Orchestra in Bregenz, Austria, by bringing together 60 Iranian musicians from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S.
In July 2022, Rahbari made his debut at the Mariinsky Theater, conducting Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite Scheherazade. Since then, he has been a regular on the Mariinsky stage.
He has released over 250 compact discs, with his recordings of operas by Verdi and Puccini under his direction gaining particular popularity.
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