1990 Dimitris Sgouros Festival in Singapore

1990 DIMITRIS SGOUROS FESTIVAL SINGAPORE

Concert Programme

Singapore skyline

Music festivals honouring Dimitris Sgouros have been instituted in Singapore, Hamburg (Germany), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). At the 1990 Dimitris Sgouros Festival in Singapore, Sgouros was soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Choo Hoey, performing twelve different piano concertos across six evenings - a feat unthinkable for any other pianist! He played the following daunting programme:

13 February 1990
Dimitris Sgouros Festival

Mozart The Magic Flute Overture

Mozart Piano Concerto No.20

Mozart Piano Concerto No.21

Choo Hoey, conductor

Dimitris Sgouros, piano

15 February 1990
Dimitris Sgouros Festival

Beethoven Coriolan Overture

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 "Emperor"

Choo Hoey, conductor

Dimitris Sgouros, piano

17 February 1990
Dimitris Sgouros Festival

Weber Oberon Overture

Chopin Piano Concerto No.1

Chopin Piano Concerto No.2

Choo Hoey, conductor

Dimitris Sgouros, piano

20 February 1990
Dimitris Sgouros Festival

Mendelssohn Ruy Blas Overture

Grieg Piano Concerto

Liszt Piano Concerto No.2

Choo Hoey, conductor

Dimitris Sgouros, piano

22 February 1990
Dimitris Sgouros Festival

Glinka Russlan and Ludmilla Overture

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1

Choo Hoey, conductor

Dimitris Sgouros, piano

24 February 1990
Dimitris Sgouros Festival

Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3

Choo Hoey, conductor

Dimitris Sgouros, piano

Read The Straits Times comprehensive coverage of the 1990 Dimitris Sgouros Festival

The Dimitris Sgouros Festival in Singapore recalled the triumphal success of an earlier Sgouros Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia

" ...musical Ljubljana will solemnize Sgouros at the parade of five piano concertos in March 1988 when he performs two Mozart Concertos, two Beethoven Concertos, and the first Brahms Concerto on three evenings in one week. A most eloquent compliment a performer was ever given in our midst."

Listen to an interview with Dimitris Sgouros in Ljubljana discussing the challenges of the Brahms Piano Concertos:-

Audience roars with approval! Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 in Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana with Maestro Uroš Lajovic

"Dimitris Sgouros, piano phenomenon" - Ljubljana debut with the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 3 (October 1986)

The Dimitris Sgouros Festival in Hamburg was likewise an unprecedented hit, with sold-out recitals across three spectacular evenings!

March 1990 - Hamburger Abendblatt

"Sgouros fulfilled his promise - in Chopin's G minor Ballade, the music flowed with care and thoughtfulness, avoiding all bombast... Chopin's Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante was wonderful with shimmering, beautiful, clear articulation... for all the fiery bravura Sgouros never coarsened... sharp portraiture and musical feeling underlined his magnificent rendition of Schumann's Carnaval... "

Dimitris Sgouros at the 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium with the USSR Festival Orchestra conducted by Vahtang Matchavariani - concert promoted in Malaysia - New Straits Times, October 17, 1990

The USSR Festival Orchestra comprises the principals of the Leningrad Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Lithuanian Philharmonic, Latvian Philharmonic, Bolshoi and Kirov Orchestras. This orchestra represents the cream of the Soviet Union's musicians and is considered by critics and audiences as the orchestra of orchestras.

Dimitris Sgouros signs autograph for a Malaysian fan who travelled especially to Singapore for his concert

[Source - http://mychng.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/when-i-met-d-s/ ]

Sgouros' Art: Sweetness, Intensity and Virtuosity

1990 Dimitris Sgouros Festival - Sheer excitement marks Sgouros' performances, Rostropovich on home stage at last - Business Times, February, 1990