‘Belgian National Orchestra’

Forbidden fruits

Wandering through a cold, bleak wood, she reveals her greatest secret to him. “I am with child, but not yours.” Verklärte Nacht (1943), which was based on a modernist poem by Richard Dehmel, challenged Viennese audiences not just because of its risqué content, but because of Schoenberg's innovative musical language. Two people melt into one; the night transforms.  

Violin and viola indulge in love play in the moonlight in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante (1779). Violinist Esther Yoo (Queen Elizabeth Competition laureate) debuted with the National Orchestra, and the viola is played by Rosalinde Ventris, Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel since 2014.

“Don Juan was a major success; the piece sounded magical and met with tumultuous applause at the end,” wrote the young Strauss (24) in a letter to his father after the premiere. The philanderer makes his entrance to four droning horns, whereupon the clarinet, bassoon and horn furnish the refined love themes by which our Spanish lothario leads innocent girls up the garden path.