On the evening of Thursday 10 December 2015, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL) took to the stage before a packed audience at the Philharmonie, conducted by Christian Vásquez and accompanied by violinist Ji Young Lim, for the 40th Christmas Gala of SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde.
In her welcoming speech, SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde (SOSVE) President Marjolijne Frieden highlighted the importance of the traditional annual Gala as a means of raising funds for SOSVE projects around the world to the benefit of children and their families desperately in need of aid and support. The Gala was organised with the support of EY Luxembourg, which has worked with SOS Villags d'Enfants Monde for the last 14 years on a series of initiatives including fund-raising, volunteering actions and internships for individuals from SOS Villages d'Enfants Dakar and Senegal.
The objectives of the 1,219 Villages d'Enfants Monde worldwide are concentrated on five primary objectives: eliminating poverty; quality education; decent work and economic growth; reduced inequalities; and peace, justice and effective institutions. The money raised through ticket sales for Thursday's concert will primarily go towards supporting projects in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia where more than a quarter of the population lives under the poverty line and which was furter devastated by earthquakes earlier this year which killed 8,900 people and affected 2.8 million children. Returning to a normal life following such desolation is no easy task, but SOSVE has helped facilitate the process by constructing homes and classrooms, opening activity spaces for children to allow their parents to concentrate on rebuilding their livelihoods and providing winterisation plans and school supplies to 4,800 students. However, whilst in Luxembourg the advent of winter is cause for Christmas celebration, in Nepal it means increased pressure to ensure the warmth and safety of thousands of people, and requires continued support to SOS Villages in the country.
With this in mind, the musical choices for the evening felt all the more powerful, with a programme comprised of Félix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Concerto for the violin and orchestra in E minor, opus 64; and The Planets Op. 32 by Gustav Holst.
It was multi-award-winning violinist Ji Young Lim who selected the Concerto and all audience eyes were fixated on the 20-year-old as she performed her violin solo. Winner of the first prize of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Ms. Lim was destined for musical greatness from an early age having first picked up a violin aged 7. She was later accepted to the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts and has since won an impressive array of awards, including the International Violin Competition of Indianopolis; First prize at the Euroasia International Competition and the Ishikawa Music Award in Japan; and Great Mountains Concerto Competition in Korea. She has performed recitals and concerto tours around the world and currently studies at Korean national University of Arts under Nam Yun Kim.
Venezuelan conductor Christian Vásquez is currently Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, and has worked with a variey of musical talents, including the Residentie Orkest, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Vienne Radio Symphony, Camerata Salzburg, State Symphony of Russia, Tokyo Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony.
Thursday's Christmas Gala saw Mr. Vasquez revive a collaboration with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL), which has been active since 1933 when it was known under the aegis of Radio Luxembourg. In 2012 the orchestra and the Philharmonie merged into an artistic and administrative symbiosis and the 2015/16 programme for the orchestra is set to include musical partnerships with, amongst many others, Gast Waltzing, whose work has been nominated for the 2016 Grammys.
The Violin Concerto in E minor is Felix Mendelssohn's largest orchestral work and took the composer six years to complete. Both traditional and innovative for its time, the Concerto showcased the strength of Ji Young Lim's violin-playing solo and in harmony with OPL in delicate undulations. The second half of the concert created a powerful musical build-up in the form of the almighty The Planets by Gustav Holst, an exploration of astrological emotions accompanied by the INECC Female Choir who were not present on stage and whose disembodied voices floating through the air therefore perfectly added to the celestial atmosphere. The audience were clearly entranced, with the delicate harmonies tailing off to numerous rounds of rapturous applause.
Photos by Alfonso Salguiero
