DOHA: The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra will perform on November 25 at the Aspire Hall at 7:30pm – a concert sponsored by the Spanish Embassy to promote the evident mutual influences of the Spanish Guitar and the Arab oud.

The first part programme will be Edward Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1. Born in 1843, Edward Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. In 1876, Grieg composed incidental music for the premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, at the request of the author. It comprises four movements: Morning Mood; Death of Aase; Amitra’s Dance; and In the Hall of the Mountain King. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular in the orchestral suites or piano and piano-duet arrangements.

Marcel Khalife’s Andalusian Suite for Oud and Orchestra will follow in the first part of this programme with his own solo performance. In this work of art composed a few years ago, the Oud, with its intimate, delicate Eastern-ness, and the orchestra, with its technical complexity, meet in a beautiful act of daring, creating a third direction that is neither of the East nor of the West.

The Oud invites the orchestra to harmonise with the Eastern music, bursting into an extravagant bouquet of mellifluous melodies.

Rhythms enter the scene like a band of Bedouin journeying out under the cover of night, marching to a heartbeat of intense sense of identity, achieving a creative crossover from the desert of the East to the first glow of the Andalusian dawn, penetrating history and geography with sheer art. Marcel Khalife’s illustrious musical and artistic career spans more than 35 years with a production of more than 25 instrumental and lyrical works.

In the second half of the programme, QPO will perform Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. The instrumentation of this famous work is unusual as rarely does the guitar face the forces of a full orchestra. Instead, the guitar is never overwhelmed, remaining the solo instrument throughout.

Vicente Coves will be the solo guitarist. Born in 1982, Vicente Coves is among today’s leading young Spanish guitarists. In 2008, he was awarded the Medal “Rubinstein” by the Conservatory Tchaikovsky in Moscow, one of the most prestigious awards on a global scale in the classical music.