The first five-star concert of the week 5^th-9^th May is the one given by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Stockholm Concert Hall on 8^th December, 2013, to celebrate the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, a prestigious annual concert,  part of the official programme of the Nobel Week, given for the Nobel Prize winners.

It was for the first time that the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Riccardo Muti. The Italian conductor is, beyond any shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest contemporary conductors of the world. He has led the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan for twenty years; he is a permanent guest of honour of the Salzburg Festival and a musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His musical activity is incredible and he was awarded the Birgit Nilsson Prize in 2011.

The programme of the Nobel extraordinary concert was entirely Italian, marking the Verdi Year. The first work of the programme was the Seasons ballet music from the Sicilian Vespers by Giuseppe Verdi. The second one – Nocturne op. 70 no. 1 – is a work composed for piano by Giuseppe Martucci, an influential personality in Italian music at the end of 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th. The symphonic poem Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi – the last composition of the concert – is one of the famous symphonic poems dedicated to the Eternal City.

Five-star concerts – a show produced by Octavia Galescu and presented by Irina Cristina Vasilescu – on Monday, 5^th May, 2014, at 15:30. Tune in on Radio Romania Music!