National Orchestra of Belgium

In the series of works commissioned by the National Orchestra to commemorate the First World War, today it is the turn of Benoît Mernier. The Violin Concerto by this Belgian composer is presented as a world premiere with Lorenzo Gatto, Queen Elisabeth Competition prize-winner, as soloist. After the interval, there follows the Seventh Symphony by Dmitri Sjostakovitsj. He wrote this monumental work - the average performance lasting 70 minutes - after being expelled from his city of Leningrad, under the authority of the advancing German troops at the time. It was his way of paying homage to the inhabitants who remained behind and the symphony was soon embraced worldwide as a musical call to stand up to fascism.