Concerts

About the Concert

Support concert for Ukraine. Leila Sherzai, soprano – Christine Pryn, violin – Henning Fredriksson, cello – Semion Balschem, klaver – Dmytro Herhel, harmonika
Music by Skoryk, Massenet, Strauss among others

About the Concert

Program:
Alfred Schnittke: Suite in the Old Style
Israel Finkelshtein: Sonata

Solbjerg Kirke and Musica Polaris welcome you to a truly unique early evening concert, where you will have the rare opportunity to hear a classical masterpiece performed for the first time ever in Denmark!

On stage are the award-winning Danish violinist Christine Pryn and the Russian piano virtuoso Polina Fradkina.

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Polina and her husband decided to leave Saint Petersburg, and since then, they have been living in Copenhagen. She brought only a small suitcase with her, and among its contents were the sheet music for a sonata written by her grandfather, the composer Israel Finkelshtein.

Finkelshtein was an assistant to Shostakovich and had the privilege of hearing some of the finest musicians of his time perform his works. However, as his name suggests, he was Jewish, and the pervasive antisemitism in the Soviet Union was not conducive to his career.

Shostakovich greatly valued Finkelshtein, as evidenced by the many letters Polina also carried with her in that suitcase.

Musica Polaris specializes in the meeting of Nordic and Eastern European music—something Christine Pryn is deeply passionate about. She has been awarded the Polish Gloria Artis medal and has collaborated with some of the last great Soviet composers, including Giya Kancheli and Elena Firsova.

Polina has rapidly built a thriving career in Denmark, where she has already given numerous concerts and lectures.

About the Concert

Program:
Julius Röntgen: Piano Trio 
Dmitri Smirnov: to be or not to be…
Elena Firsova: Four Seasons
Amanda Maier-Röntgen: Piano Quartet

Rudersdal Chamber Players Premiere a 1921 Piano Trio by Carl Nielsen’s Close Friend, the German-Dutch Composer Julius Röntgen!

Today, where almost everything is available online, discovering an unknown work by a renowned composer is nothing short of a sensation.

It feels like a musical time capsule when the yellowed, handwritten sheet music is transformed into sound for the very first time: late Romantic in style and full of beautiful melodies.

You can witness this moment yourself on March 20 and 21 at 19:30 in Vor Frelsers Kirke and Birkerød Sognegård, respectively.

These concerts mark the second and final part of Rudersdal Chamber Players’ series Music’s Power Couples, focusing on composer couples.

Röntgen (1855–1932) was humorously referred to as “not the famous one”, alluding to the inventor of X-rays, who was a distant relative. Nevertheless, he was at the heart of the musical elite of his time. He performed as the soloist in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, conducted by Brahms himself, and he was a close friend of both Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen.

His wife, the Swedish violinist and composer Amanda Maier, tragically passed away at just 41 years old, leaving behind an unfinished piano quartet, which Röntgen later completed.

The second featured composer couple is Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov. This time, they are presented with two piano quartets, both written for Rudersdal Chamber Players in 2019.

Elena’s Four Seasons is inspired by English weather, while Dmitri drew on Shakespeare’s Hamlet for his quartet “To be or not to be…”. This became one of his final works, as he passed away eight months after its premiere, one of the early victims of the pandemic.

Rudersdal Chamber Players have continued collaborating with Elena and will release a recording of their chamber music this summer in celebration of her 75th birthday.
The concert is recorded by Danish Radio