Tonight’s concert celebrates the music of three great symphonists at the height of their powers. La Reine (‘The Queen’) is the fourth of Haydn’s six magnificent ‘Paris’ symphonies, which earned its nickname as it was a particular favourite of Queen Marie Antoinette. Sibelius’s First established the Nordic symphonic tradition at a stroke, its desolate opening clarinet solo finding emotional release in a surging, impassioned score of captivating emotional power. Brahms also synthesised the sounds of a solo instrument with music on a symphonic scale in his Violin Concerto, which virtuoso Bronislav Huberman characterised memorably as ‘a concerto for violin against orchestra – and the violin wins!’
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More concerts at Royal Festival Hall
Pre-concert talk
May 30 2013, 18:00 - Royal Festival Hall
Professor Jonathan Cross introduces the evening’s programme.
Salonen conducts in London
May 30 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Esa-Pekka conducts The Rite of Spring in its centenary performance alongside Debussy's Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Varèse's Amériques










