The Belgian National Orchestra invites the Orchestre National de Lyon for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.
"The Germans have four violin concertos," the famous violinist Joseph Joachim once claimed, "the greatest, most uncompromising one is Beethoven's. Brahms’ is the most serious. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most intimate is undoubtedly Mendelssohn’s – a true jewel of the heart". Mendelssohn took no less than six years to complete his Violin Concerto, his last work for large orchestra.
During this exchange concert, the Orchestre National de Lyon, conducted by its chief conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, also performs Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. This symphony in four movements is arguably Bruckner's most beloved piece. The adagio, which opens with a lament dominated by violas and Wagner tubas, is an ode to Richard Wagner. When Bruckner started to write this adagio, Wagner's health had already seriously deteriorated, and he died while this movement was only halfway completed. According to some musicologists, the cymbals and triangle – which only play for a single bar and do not appear in the rest of the symphony – symbolize the moment when Bruckner heard the news of Wagner's death. The premiere of the Seventh Symphony, in December 1884, was Bruckner's first major professional success.
The Belgian National Orchestra brings an ode to Ukraine with Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony.
Lawrence Power performs Béla Bartók’s unfinished Viola Concerto. Be also enchanted by the melodies of Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony.
An evening around Marsalis, with both his Violin Concerto and Jungle Symphony in collaboration with the musicians of Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Benjamin Beilman ventures into Stravinsky's Violin Concerto and the orchestra brings enchantment with Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
Meet the four temperaments in Carl Nielsen's Second Symphony and the story of Don Quixote in Strauss' symphonic poem of the same name.
