Belgian National Orchestra, Hermus & Gavrylyuk

About the Event

Some music seems to burst with energy even before the first note has faded away. Sergei Prokofiev’s beloved Third Piano Concerto is one such work. It sparkles with vitality and bubbles over with energy—edgy yet irresistibly captivating. Composed across Russia, France, and the United States, the concerto embodies a spirit of boundless freedom. As André Previn once remarked, it could well be the most beautiful piano concerto of the post‐Romantic era: nimble, unmistakably Russian, and extraordinarily demanding. The piano dances and provokes. The tone is light yet ironic—almost Mozartian in its clarity—but permeated by rhythmic tensions that captivate and unsettle. In the celebrated soloist Alexander Gavrylyuk, this masterpiece finds an interpreter who combines power and precision, transforming every motif into a surge of pure energy.
After the intermission, Tchaikovsky presents his monumental Manfred Symphony. Above all, Tchaikovsky was a master of melody. His expansive, lyrical lines unfailingly captured the hearts of the audience. In “Manfred,” this melodic gift merges with a grandiose romantic narrative of longing, inner turmoil, and fate, based on Lord Byron’s poem of the same name. The symphony is imbued with stirring melodrama it is inspired, richly orchestrated, and emotionally intense. Every climax, masterfully shaped by conductor Antony Hermus, rises like a wave that lifts you up and sweeps you away every lyrical passage breathes nostalgia and passion. A Sunday symphony in which youthful energy and romance come together intensely.