The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has found a new conductor for its performances in Taipei on Friday and Saturday after Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, who has a hernia, pulled out of the orchestra’s Asia tour.
The orchestra is to be led by Finnish conductor Osmo Vanska, the concerts’ promoter, Management of New Arts, said.
The orchestra will present a mixed classical music program on Friday and hold an evening of Beethoven the following night at the National Concert Hall.
Among the pieces to be performed are Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major Jupiter, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major Eroica.
The violin solo in Mendelssohn’s piece will be played by Taiwan-born violinist Robert Chen (陳慕融), who has been the orchestra’s concertmaster since 1999, the promoter said.
In addition, Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov will feature in the orchestra’s performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major on Saturday, the promoter said.
Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has made about 40 overseas tours since 1971.
Taipei will be the first leg of the orchestra’s Asian tour, which includes cities in China and South Korea. It will be the orchestra’s first performance in Taiwan.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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