‘Belgian National Orchestra, Wolff & Chooi’

In 2019, the young Canadian star violinist Timothy Chooi won the second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. He plays Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, composed in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution. Prokofiev fled to the United States as soon as he finished composing the work, and then to Western Europe. It was not until 1923 that the concerto received its premiere in Paris. A few years earlier Debussy wrote his Images pour orchestre. In this orchestral work, he paints an extremely striking musical picture of Spain. The Belgian National Orchestra opens with Laterna Magica by Kaija Saariaho, one of the most celebrated contemporary composers.