You'll hear a world-renowned symphony orchestra based in London, right at the Royal Festival Hall, conducted from 2021 by Santtu-Matias Rouvali. The Finnish musician also holds the position of Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra since 2017 with a contract until 2025 and is Honorary Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Finland.

The programme will open with Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, the best-known of the 19 such works dedicated to the piano by the great 19th-century virtuoso. Composed in 1847, it was an immediate success and its extraordinary popularity led the composer Franz Liszt to produce a version for orchestra in collaboration with Franz Doppler, one of his students. Liszt gave Doppler the task of orchestrating six of his Hungarian Rhapsodies. Each measure of these orchestrations was then revised by Liszt before publication, but he agreed that Doppler's name should remain on the title page.

This would be followed by Dmitri Shostakovich's Concerto No.1 in E flat major op.107, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich and which this great Russian cellist of the 20th century gave his first performance on 4 October 1959 in Moscow.

You can now watch Sol Gabetta (born in Argentina in 1981, Swiss citizen since 2018), winner of the Grand Prize at the Swiss Music Awards 2024, as a soloist, being recognised by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture as "a versatile musician with an outstanding international solo career".

In the second part of the concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, you will enjoy the music of an English composer. You'll hear Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations op.36. It will begin with "a hidden, enigmatic, cryptic theme" followed by fourteen variations. Elgar played himself, each variation a musical portrait of a character in his close entourage and, ultimately, of himself.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, the 6th of June 2024, at 21.30, when Radio România Muzical will broadcast live this exceptional concert!