In the forthcoming concert of the Sofia Philharmonic on February 25^th the audience will have the opportunity to hear works by Austrian composers who are representatives of different eras - Piano Concerto No.17 in G major (G dur) by Mozart and a Sinfonietta for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 23 by Alexander Zemlinsky, written in the first decades of the 20^th century. On the conductor’s podium the audience will see Sascha Goetzel - chief guest conductor of Bulgaria’s national philharmonic orchestra.

Born in Vienna, Sascha Goetzel received his first violin lessons from his father and at the age of 11 began studying conducting with Prof. Richard Österreicher. Since 2008 he has been the artistic director and chief conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming and a number of other big names on the world stage.

Soloist in the piano concerto of the great Viennese classics will be Russian classical pianist Sergei Redkin, who has recently been living in Bulgaria. He was born in Krasnoyarsk, began playing the piano at the age of 5, and at the age of 13 received his first major awards at international piano competitions. In 2016, the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev invited him as a soloist in the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. Together they have given concerts in Paris, New York, Mexico, Madrid, Budapest and Munich.

Redkin is already well known in Bulgaria, and in the summer of 2020, again at the invitation of the Sofia Philharmonic, he played on the same stage with his wife - the Bulgarian pianist Victoria Vassilenko.

Edited by Albena Bezovska

English version Rositsa Petkova

Photos: sofiaphilharmonic.com