DOHA: Gerd Albrecht will conduct the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme including Ludwig van Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture on November 12 at the Katara Cultural Village Opera House. Soprano Petra Froese of the Czech Republic will guest at the concert in singing two concert arias by the same composers. The events of Beethoven’s life are the stuff of romantic legend, evoking images of the solitary creator shaking his fist at fate and finally overcoming it through a supreme effort of creative will. The Seventh Symphony was Beethoven‘s definitive break with earlier stylistic conventions. He stretched harmonic rules and gave breadth to the symphonic forms that Haydn and Mozart had established. At the age of 22, Professor Gerd Albrecht was awarded the first prize at the International Young Conductors Competition. This led to his steady advancement through the Deutsche Opera Berlin, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Hamburg State Opera and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent years, Albrecht led the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen. The young soprano Petra Froese has performed throughout Europe, South America, Australia and Japan. Recent appearances have included Basel, Madrid, Stuttgart, Warsaw, Doha, Weimar and Strasbourg. She will sing two concert arias for soprano and orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Infelice and Beethoven’s Ah! perfido. Beethoven’s area is the cry of a woman who has been betrayed in love. Vacillating between a desire for vengeance and desolation at her abandonment, she invokes on her betrayer the wrath of the gods. Then, softening, she begs fate to spare him. Kurt Meister, Executive Director of the Philharmonic, looks forward to continuing his long association with Gerd Albrecht. “This is a great first concert for anyone who hasn’t heard a symphony orchestra. In the Seventh Symphony they’ll hear at times charm, then deep emotion and at last dizzying speed. Qatar has a deep vocal heritage, and this concert explores an often-neglected vocal tradition of the orchestra world, the concert aria. And audiences are always delighted by the Hebrides Overture, a seascape for the ears.” The next concert for the Philharmonic will be November 16, when clarinetist Rony Moser and the Doha String Quartet play chamber music of Mozart, Haydn and Mendelssohn. The full orchestra next performs November 19, when UAE pianist Arsha Kaviani performs Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto. The Peninsula

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