Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest . Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and his Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra set the 'International Symphonic' series rolling with two classics from the Romantic repertoire. Beethoven's 1804 'Eroica' drew its inspiration from the heroic military feats of Napoleon Bonaparte, albeit that Beethoven's own work was no less heroic, this third symphony being of hitherto unknown proportions and one that opened the door to Romanticism in music. An equally impressive work is Dvorák's Cello Concerto, completed in 1895. With a healthy dose of robust lyricism, it is a piece that the Norwegian soloist Truls Mørk can get his teeth into. It is also one that contains some of the best-known themes written by the Czech composer, as Johannes Brahms noted, sighing after reading it through for the first time, "Had I known that it was possible to write a cello concerto like that, I would have done it a long time ago".