InClassica: A Romantic Journey

11 Feb 2024 | 20:00 | Dubai Opera, UAE

Mendelssohn The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, ‘Fingal’s Cave’
Alexey Shor Travel Notebook
Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

Yekwon Sunwoo piano
Christoph Poppen conductor

South Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo, Gold medallist at the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and multiple First Prize Winner at numerous other international competitions, shall be gracing Dubai’s classical music scene on Sunday 11th February, delivering a concert as part of the 2024 InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group. Joining him on stage shall be the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, led by German conductor Christoph Poppen, who will open the evening with Felix Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides, a concert overture first composed in 1830 which was inspired by the composer’s visit to the British Isles. In a similar vein, this will be followed by Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Suite for piano and orchestra No. 1 ‘Travel Notebook’ whose composition was also motivated by a series of international trips undertaken by the composer. In fact, the concerto functions as a musical diary of sorts, taking audiences on a musical journey to far-flung corners of the world across its seven movements, and reflecting Shor’s impressions and inspirations during his travels. Sunwoo shall then depart the stage, leaving Poppen and the orchestra to conclude with Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, a cheery, light-hearted work that was written in the summer of 1877 while the composer was enjoying a holiday in the Austrian province of Carinthia.