Martino Tirimo (Nicosia)

The orchestra was established in 1986 and comprises of exceptional virtuosi. Together with the baritone Kyros Patsalides they will present works by W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, J. Strauss and Andreas Orphanides.

FRYDERYK CHOPIN (1810-1849)

In 2010 the musical world will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's birth and I feel happy that Kings Place, London's newest and most wonderful concert hall, have asked me to present the composer's entire works in a unique series of 12 concerts which will also include his songs, chamber music and works for piano and orchestra.

Although Chopin's output is almost exclusively for the piano, he was a great innovator, as revolutionary as Beethoven, and whose influence on composers of the French, German and Russian schools was immense. He possessed an unrivalled knowledge of the piano and its sonorities, and the wonderful naturalness of his musical expression is often taken too much for granted. Even though he lived half his life in Paris, he was a Pole through and through and nearly all his works express characteristics of the dance music and melodies of his beloved country.

By the time Chopin died at the age of 39 he had fundamentally changed piano writing forever. However, despite all his melodic and harmonic invention, brilliance and originality, it is the elegance and deep poetry of his works that touch the soul. He was a musician who spoke directly from the heart and this may be one of the reasons why he has constantly remained one of music's best-loved composers.