Music from Louis to Pompidou
with soloist Paolo Giacometti

Ciconia Consort conducted by Dick van Gasteren
Paolo Giacometti, piano

Concerts

Saturday, April 30, 2022 – 8:15 PM
New Church, The Hague
extras: dinner Pavlov + €24
LAST TICKETS or via the box office in the Nieuwe Kerk (also for tickets with Ooievaarspas), open on Tuesdays & Fridays between 1 pm and 6 pm

Sunday, May 1, 2022  – 4:00 pm
Great Church, Naarden
CARDS

Saturday, May 14, 2022 – 8:15 PM
De Lievekamp, ​​Oss
CARDS

Sunday, May 22, 2022 – 3:00 PM
Jurriaanse Hall, De Doelen, Rotterdam
CARDS
Rotterdam pass: order tickets stating your code in the mail

Fri 20 May 2022 | Society De Witte, The Hague
(private concert centenary Papefonds)

Sunday, June 12, 2022  – 12:30 (adapted program, without Paolo Giacometti )
Open air theater Vondelpark, Amsterdam
Free entrance or reserve a seat
Tzigane by Maurice Ravel with soloist Emmy Storms

Program

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) – Nocturne from: Shylock Suite opus 57
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) – Chamber Symphony No. 4
Jaques Castérède (1926-2014) – Concerto for piano and strings
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) – Nocturne No.17 In B, opus 62-1, arrangement Texu Kim
Jaques Castérède (1926-2014) – Prélude et fugue pour orchester à cordes
George Bizet (1838-1875) – Adagietto from: L’arlesienne suite no.1
Jean Rivier (1896-1987) – Triad pour orchester à cordes

The Café Paris concert is a varied mosaic of two centuries of leading Parisian music by beloved romantics and (early) moderns from Paris. Castérède’s beautiful first symphony, featured on Ciconia Consort’s debut CD, was a great discovery for the orchestra. Ciconia now embarks on an adventure with the renowned and versatile pianist Paolo Giacometti with his piano concerto.

In France, art has been regarded as national prestige for centuries. Government support for the arts begins as early as 1666 with the establishment of the prestigious ‘Prix de Rome’ and the founding of the Royal Academy of Music and Dance by King Louis XIV. Love for one’s own art, patriotism and even some chauvinism (a French word for good reason) lead to Paris – certainly in the 20th century – leading in all the arts. The Parisian art circles provide a true melting pot of cultural styles and innovation. From Impressionism to reactionary movements such as Cubism, Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism and Expressionism. Paris is also the stage for inventiveness and innovation in music. On the shoulders of romantics, impressionists such as Fauré and Bizet, and the L’art pour l’art of the Groupe des Six with Darius Milhaud, there are socially involved artists in the time of the student revolts of the sixties. A new generation of composers of this post-war period, such as Castérède, Jolivet and Rivier, find their way to the international stages with often revolutionary work. What connects all the French composers of this program, despite the different musical styles: they all followed their musical training at the renowned Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris and were themselves Professeur de Composition here, to train new generations.

Paolo Giacometti
Paolo Giacometti studied with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam, where he graduated in 1995 with the highest distinction. Gyorgy Sebök was also an important source of inspiration and had a major influence on his musical development. A frequent prize winner, he has performed as a soloist with well-known orchestras conducted by prominent conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Jaap van Zweden, Laurent Petitgirard, Kenneth Montgomery and Michel Tilkin. His love for chamber music led to a successful collaboration with celebrities such as Pieter Wispelwey, Gordan Nikolic and Janine Jansen and together with Candida Thompson and Xenia Jankovic he forms the Hamlet Piano Trio.

Paolo Giacometti performs worldwide as a soloist and as a chamber musician, on both authentic and modern instruments, on leading venues such as the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Wigmore Hall (London), Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), Seoul Arts Center (South Korea), Konzerthaus Wien. In recent months he has given solo recitals in prestigious venues in Rio de Janeiro and Saõ Paulo.

Meanwhile, Giacometti has an impressive list of CDs to his name. With the Hamlet Piano Trio he dedicated one CD to Mendelssohn and one to Beethoven’s Geister Trio for the Channel Classics label. For the same label he also recorded the complete piano oeuvre of Rossini, a remarkable project with eight CDs that started in 1998 and was completed in April 2007. For the third CD of this series he was awarded the Edison Classic 2001. His recording of Schumann’s Humoreske, Fantasiestücke and Toccata received the ‘Benchmark and Performance of Outstanding Quality’ award from the BBC music magazine. Those with the Schumann and Dvorak piano concertos were praised by Gramophone as “…one of the best concerto disks I have heard in a long while…”. The Schubert CD recording that Giacometti recorded with Pieter Wispelwey was awarded the Choc du Monde de la Musique and a 10 from the magazineLuister. Their CD recording with works by Chopin, Fauré and Poulenc was awarded a Diapason d’or.

Paolo Giacometti is also a dedicated professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.