THE BASQUE NATIONAL ORCHESTRA IS FINE TUNING ITS PARTICIPATION IN THE BOS SUBSCRIBERS' SEASON

The Basque National Orchestra will perform two concerts as part of the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa Subscribers' Season. The concerts will be under the direction of Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen, and feature piano soloist from Getxo, Miguel Ituarte.

The two concerts, held on January 14th and 15th, are part of the orchestra exchange programme featured this year in the BOS Subscribers' Season. Both orchestras have a long track record of concert swopping with other Spanish orchestras - and in the case of the Basque National Orchestra, with orchestras in other countries. Now, after many years the two orchestras have decided to revive their policy on musical interchange.

Under the direction of young Finnish conductor, Pietari Inkinen, who will take up the baton for the orchestra for the first time, the Basque National Orchestra will perform works by Sibelius, Prokofiev and Debussy. The concerts will be held in Bilbao's Palacio Euskalduna. Pietari Inkinen has been Music Director for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and in 2009 became Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Iniken has worked as guest conductor for a number of orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bayerische Rundfunk, WDR Cologne, Maggio Musicale, La Scala, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and CBSO, and has enjoyed successful collaborations with soloists such as Vadim Repin, Hilary Hahn, Pinchas Zukerman, Nikolaj Znaider, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Alexander Toradze and Elisabeth Leonskaya.

This is not the first time Miguel Ituarte has performed as a featured soloist with the Basque National Orchestra. On this occasion the piano soloist will perform Prokofiev's Concert No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra, thus including the piece in the Orchesta's repertoire. Miguel Ituarte has been soloist for the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Royal Philharmonic in London, Luxemburg Radio Symphony Orchestra, Schleswig-Holstein Philharmonic in Hamburg, Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and the Clásica de Oporto, and for numerous orchestras in Spain and South America. He has also given recitals in Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Poland.

The programme will open with "En Saga" by Jean Sibelius: The second part with begin with "Swan of Tuonela" from Sibelius' "Lemminkäinen Suite", and draw to a close with Debussy's "La Mer".

Concerts
14 January: Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao. 20.00
15 January: Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao. 20.00

Programme
J. Sibelius: En Saga
S. Prokofiev: Concerto No. 5 for Piano and Orchestra
J. Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite, Opus 22. II Swan of Tuonela
C. Debussy : La Mer

Pietari Inkinen, conductor
Miguel Ituarte, piano