SALON CONCERT OF MASTERS

victorshramko
2 days ago
4 min read

NLWM No 33 11/12/2025

A CONCERT is a live performance of music in front of an audience. A SALON can refer to an elegant room in a house where guests are received, also a social gathering of influential people. Fits like a glove!

Kuwait Music Academy is engaged in teaching music. But all music comes alive only when it is played. That's why we teach our students from the very beginning how to perform in front of people. The best way to teach is by example:

Bear witness! English say: What use is used to, age remembers. Or: As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.

Mastery Is Essential

Moreover, young people want not only to believe but also to see that their guides are MASTERS. Hence, perhaps the history of concerts began in schools. The first closed concerts appeared in the late 17^th century in such universities as Oxford or Cambridge. The first open concerts were established by one of the finest violinists of his day, John Banister, in 1672 in his house in Whitefriars, London, known as 'the musical school'. Advertisement in the London Gazette of Dec. 30, 1672, giving notice of a 'Musical Performance by Excellent Masters'.

353 Years Later: Concert of Concertos

Concert is also the name of a musical form (from the Latin: 'concertare' (contend, dispute) and 'consortium' (society, participation). Our Concert will feature four instrumental Concertos.

1. Almost like centuries ago, the guests will be welcomed by Court-Master (in German: Hof-Meister. In this case, it is the name of the Concert's first composer. Austrian Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812). Since his studies in Vienna, he has already become one of the most popular and highly respected composers there. His concert tours took him as far as London. As a multi-instrumentalist, he has composed dozens of great Concertos. (And he also founded a music publishing company, known to this day as Edition Peters!)

Critic wrote: 'If you were to take a glance at many and varied works, then you'd have to admire the diligence and the cleverness of this composer...a virtuoso on all of the instruments for which he wrote'. The Viola Concerto in D, which has gained prominence, showcases Hoffmeister's skill in exploiting the full range of the viola. The piece will present Dmitri Krasnikov, a virtuoso remembered from the unforgettable Viola Bouquet Concert in February.

2. Dmitri Krasnikov and the excellent clarinetist, Viktor Shramko, will perform Max Bruch's (1838-1920) Concerto for viola & clarinet. The late Romantic German composer wrote a symphony at the age of 14 and presented his first opera at the age of 20. His 1^st Violin Concerto has become a staple of the violin repertoire. M. Bruch was also a violinist, teacher, conductor, philosopher, and a lover of Scotland (vide his Scottish Symphony).

3. The next piece, the Guitar Concierto d'Aranjuez by Spain's Blind Maestro, Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999), became from its premiere an eternal world hit. Unable to see from early childhood the world around him, he turned inward, and acute sensitivity to sound would shape his unique musical voice. The Concerto was premiered in 1940, at the time just after the death of his beloved daughter, his wife's serious illness, and the tragedy of the cruel civil war in his homeland. It's a lament over the tragic fate but worthy, dignified, and BEAUTIFUL. This moving poem about fate will be presented by the talented, sensitive guitar virtuoso, Alexandr Kovalev.

4. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was a late Classicist and early Romantic half and half. He spent his childhood 'on the road', in a traveling opera, created by his parents. It formed his interests. His early works were... four operas, a result of studying with his father and – Michael Haydn (brother). He also became a cousin of Mozart, who married Constanze Weber, his uncle's daughter, a singer, of course! He composed throughout his short life 14 operas. Four early of them were lost. The most famous is The Freeshooter (1821), a cornerstone of German Romantic Opera. Successful across Europe, the Opera was soon presented in four opera theatres in London. As a result, the Royal Opera in 1825 commissioned his opera Oberon. Sickly from childhood, he passed away just after the prestigious Royal premiere in spring 1826 in London. Initially buried there, after years was relocated to Dresden. His Clarinet Concerto will be presented by the awesome Viktor Shramko (also conductor of KMA Orchestra (in statu nascendi).

Promise of Real Blast

The second half of the Master's Concert promises to be a real blast. Two of our leading vocalists, soprano Kinga Masternak and Kamil Deryło, will present A Revue of World Hits. It contains songs by George & Ira Gershwin (from Lady Be Good, Porgy and Bess, Girl Crazy and the movie The Man I Love). And at the end, duets from the mega-pop-musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber The Phantom of The Opera. It looks like there will be no end of encores!!!

All Masters of Concert got really great support from the accompaniment of the reliable pianist, Inna Agibalova.

MOST WELCOME: Concert will be held on Friday, Dec. 12 at 7:00 pm.