The Tehran Symphony Orchestra staged a two-day performance with Shahrdad Rouhani as conductor, at Vahdat Hall on May 25 and 26.
Several repertoires by Iranian and foreign composers were presented to the enthusiastic audiences, Honaronline reported.
The opening performance was ‘Piano Concerto No. 2’ composed by Russian pianist, composer and conductor Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).
The orchestra dazzled the audiences with their brilliant and skillful performance. Another piece ‘Egmont Overture’, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) the famous German musician, was also performed.
‘Bijan and Manijeh’ by the famous Iranian composer Hossein Dehlavi, inspired by a love story from the Shahnameh (literally the book of kings), the longest Persian epic poem by celebrated poet Ferdowsi (940–1020), added a touch of Persian symphony music to the event.
Dehlavi’s scintillating three-part piece was followed by ‘Prince Igor’ by Russian composer Alexander Borodin (1933-1887).
The opera ‘Prince Igor’ is seen by some to be Borodin’s most significant works and one of the most important historical Russian operas.
Under conductor Rouhani’s skillful baton, a work by celebrated Iranian conductor and composer Heshmat Sanjari (1918-1995), titled ‘Dance in a Circle’, was presented much to the surprise of the attendees. Sanjari’s compositions are popular in Iran and Rouhani said this is a tribute to the great music master.
Birthday Surprise
At the end of the concert, the orchestra members played an unscheduled melody ‘Happy Birthday’ surprising Rouhani on his birthday.
Shahrdad Rouhani, 62, is an acclaimed Iranian composer, violinist, pianist, and conductor. His style is contemporary and he is well-known for composing and conducting classical, instrumental, adult contemporary/new age, film soundtrack as well as pop music.
Arsalan Kamkar, Maziar Zahireddini, Mohammadreza Karimi, Amir Sepehr, Arash Asad Nejad, Atefeh-Sadat Hosseini and Navid Sha’banzadeh are among the members of the huge orchestra that comprises 80 young and talented musicians, and a 50-member choir.
The Tehran Symphony Orchestra was originally founded in 1933 as the Municipality Symphony Orchestra by Gholamhossein Minbashian, but it was modernized by Parviz Mahmoud in 1946 and since then has been under the baton of famous conductors such as Rubik (Ruben) Gregorian, Morteza Hannaneh, Haymo Taeuber, Heshmat Sanjari, Farhad Meshkat, and a host of other renowned Iranian maestros.
Maestro Ali Rahbari, a graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and conductor of symphony orchestras in Brussels, Prague and Zagreb, and winner of several international gold and silver medals, recently announced his formal resignation as conductor of the TSO.
