Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s 275th anniversary tour culminates in Taiwan

November 10, 2017 5:33 pm

Leonidas and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra bring the orchestra’s 275th anniversary tour to an end on 16 and 17 November with two concerts at Taipei’s National Concert Hall. Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt leads the orchestra once again, with Leonidas performing the Brahms and Mendelssohn concertos. The concert on 17 November will be streamed live to thousands of people on screens outside the concert hall in Taipei’s huge Liberty Square.

The European leg of the tour, which also featured Leonidas playing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Kirill Gerstein and Gautier Capucon, was a huge critical and popular success, with a sold-out concert at the Barbican in London receiving universal praise:

“With three such fine players as the Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos, the French cellist Gautier Capuçon and the Russian-born pianist Kirill Gerstein, this was a constant reward… [Capuçon’s] exchanges with Kavakos’s more intense and physical playing were a constant highlight.”
Five stars, Guardian

“[Beethoven’s Triple Concerto] has the unmistakeable Beethovenian largeness of spirit, which violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Gautier Capuçon certainly projected with tremendous bravura.”
Daily Telegraph

Before the concerts in Tapei, Leonidas and the orchestra also perform in major cities across Japan. They give concerts in Sapporo (7 November), Yokohama (9 November) and two concerts in Tokyo on 11 and 12 November. While in Japan, Leonidas also performs in recital at Tokyo’s Toppan Hall with his long-standing collaborator Enrico Pace on 13 November.