‘Belgian National Orchestra’

ORIGINALS

“A symphony with a violin solo” is how the composer Hector Berlioz described Henri Vieuxtemps’s Violin Concerto No. 4. And the orchestra does indeed play a prominent role in this composition. Vieuxtemps makes the listener wait for the soloist, opening his concerto with a stately andante for the orchestra instead. Even so, the violinist is the real star of this concert. This evening we are lucky to have the Belgian rising star Lorenzo Gatto as the soloist. We will celebrate with him the 200th birth year of Henri Vieuxtemps, which was born in Verviers in 1820.

Various arrangements exist of Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition, but Maurice Ravel’s is by far the best known. He colours every painting in his own unique way, even composing a solo for saxophone, an instrument which had just been invented at the time, and was not traditionally used in a symphony orchestra. From now on we will have to look at Hartmann’s paintings, which inspired this composition, through this music. The original canvases were unfortunately lost.

Exceptionally, this concert is planned on a Saturday.