‘Belgian National Orchestra & Ollikainen’

Austrian composer Erich Korngold emigrated to America to escape Nazism. His Violin Concerto exudes the atmosphere of Vienna at the turn of the century, and in terms of orchestration it can compete with the best works of Mahler and Strauss. The Second Symphony by Austrian composer Thomas Larcher will have its premiere in Belgium at Bozar. The title Kenotaph (cenotaph, a tomb for the deceased whose remains cannot be found) is a tribute to the large numbers of refugees who drowned crossing the Mediterranean in 2016. A monumental structure of sounds; a drama without words. The Belgian National Orchestra includes in this programme Franz Schubert's Eighth Symphony in B Minor, a work whose success is due not only to the enigmas surrounding it, but also to its great melodic quality.