National Orchestra of Belgium

The young French cellist Gautier Capuçon is one of the stars of the international music scene. He is just as at ease with major orchestral works as he is with more intimate chamber music. The Cello Concerto by Edward Elgar, the composer’s last major work, is distinctive for its searing intensity and languorous melodies. The indefinable sounds with which Joseph Haydn, in Die Schöpfung, translated primal chaos into music are as impressive today as they were at the time. Similarly, the combination of polytonality, polyrhythms, dissonance and unusual orchestration of Igor Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps makes as big an impact on the listener as it did on the day of its premiere. The programme commences with the premiere of a specially commissioned work by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov.

An autograph session will be organized during the break.