Programme:
W. A. Mozart: Overture to the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail
W. A. Mozart: Flute Concerto No. 1 in G Major, K. 313
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F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61

At the age of just 20, the flautist Irena Grafenauer became the first ever female soloist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a remarkable achievement. She performed concerts with the Munich-based orchestra for ten years, after which her increasingly frequent solo and chamber performances persuaded her to pursue a solo career. Now the audience has the chance to admire this celebrated flautist as she performs Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1, which the then 22-year-old composer wrote in Mannheim under a commission from the Dutch businessman De Jean.   She will appear alongside the top clarinettist, conductor, artistic director and composer Mate Bekavac, who will conduct the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra.  The soprano Štefica Stipančević, mezzosoprano Nuška Drašček and the Dekor Chamber Choir, along with actor Blaž Šef, will join the orchestra in performing Mendelssohn’s incidental music for Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For many peoples, Midsummer Night is the most important holiday in the year, celebrating light. On that magical night, both dead souls trapped on Earth as well as the living are supposedly driven to irrational acts by supernatural forces. The essential components of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream have a basis in mythology and fairy-tales: the Athenian Duke Theseus is preparing for his nuptials with the Queen of the Amazons, Hyppolita.