‘Brussels Philharmonic’

CONTEXT: 19:00 Introduction with Stéphane Denève at the piano.

An entire Russian programme, with great figures such as Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky side by side with the young multi-talented Lera Auerbach: yet another typical programme by Stéphane Denève. The story of Icarus fascinates Auerbach: his tragic fate is what gives it its distinct beauty. There is no tragedy in Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, by contrast: he wrote the work for his son, and it is an exceptionally cheerful work. In his Symphony No. 4, Tchaikovsky tries to understand his own life, with illusion and fate as the golden thread – for as he himself put it, ‘the power of fate is too strong for an individual to be able to withstand’.