deFilharmonie . Jaap Van Zweden

This work has to be the jewel in the crown of the Sibelius season at deSingel. After the Sibelius happening and the Seventh Symphony played by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden and deFilharmonie will wind up the evening with the powerful violin concerto. It is one of the most frequently played violin concertos and radiates Finnish enthusiasm. Sibelius combines the typically northern atmosphere with the passion and melancholy of romanticism. It will be interesting to see how the powerful young Armenian violinist Sergej Khachatryan, winner of the Queen Elizabeth competition, will fare as he plays this violin concerto. After the interval, deFilharmonie will take a completely different direction, with a selection from the three orchestral suites Prokofiev extracted from his ballet 'Romeo and Juliet'. He here demonstrates his mastery of psychological character sketches. The score is a synthesis of his rich musical idiom. In the scenes of conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets, Prokofiev returns to a raw, harmonically audacious range of sounds. For the courtly dances he drew on the classicism he had developed in his Classical Symphony. But above all, 'Romeo and Juliet' contains a high dose of melodic lyricism that no one can fail to be moved by.