site.btaMasterpieces by Tchaikovsky, Respighi and Ponchielli to Be Performed at Sofia’s Central Military Club

One of the most fascinating compositions for two clarinets and orchestra, the divertimento The Meeting by Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli, will be performed in Sofia for the first time ever. It will be played in a concert of the Mitonissimo Orchestra at the Central Military Club on December 9, said Ognyan Mitonov, who will appear as conductor and soloist during the event.

In The Meeting, Ponchielli, who is known as a teacher of composer Giacomo Puccini and author of the famous opera La Gioconda, presents a rendezvous of two people in love. “The two clarinets are used in a plastic, expressive and rich piece of superb musical matter,” Mitonov said. There will also be another soloist, Dancho Radevski.

The concert will also feature Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. Originally conceived as a symphony, it quickly became famous internationally and is one of the best loved and most performed works of the brilliant Russian composer.

Inspired by Baroque and Renaissance music, Italian composer and musicologist Ottorino Respighi created orchestral transcriptions of works by old masters, collectively titled Ancient Airs and Dances. The concert will present Suite No. 3, based on French and Italian music of the 16th and the 17th centuries, with Respighi credited for the orchestration, the form and the style.

Maestro Ognyan Mitonov is longtime conductor at Sofia’s National Muscical Theatre. He is the founder and manager of the Mitonissimo Orchestra. For his work as conductor and organizer of music events, he won the Leader of the Year Prize in Music from the first edition of the awards, which honour outstanding figures in various fields of public life who bring positive change to the business environment, culture and society with their leadership and social responsibility.