Budapest Festival Orchestra

Women? Without exception unfaithful and double-tongued, the sultan is convinced – and so had all his lawful wedded wives executed immediately after the wedding night. But when Scheherazade is due to go to the block, the clever beauty starts telling a story. She is literally narrating for her life, coming up with new ideas again and again, inventing continuations – one thousand and one nights long. Finally, the sultan recognises that he has fallen in love with Scheherazade. The tale about the making of the almost inexhaustible oriental fairy treasure inspired Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to probably his most famous tone poem – which in turn captured the fantasy of outstanding choreographers as well as Hollywood’s dream factory. However, as pure music at the concert hall too, Sinbad and company come to life impressively – through Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterful, enthralling music: great cinema in your mind. But of course this assumes a top-class orchestra: the internationally acclaimed Budapest Festival Orchestra under the baton of its founder and chief conductor Iván Fischer will guarantee an exuberance not of only Russian-Oriental provenance – because the Spanish rhythms of Lalo’s "Symphonie espagnole" in combination with the splendid young violinist Renaud Capuçon will also ignite enthusiasm. As prelude, however, the austere drama of Brahms’ Tragic Overture: an outstanding musical journey around the globe.

Introductory talk with Walter Weidringer, 18:30 h, Box

Programme Johannes Brahms: The Tragic Overture, Op. 81. Édouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Concerto for violin in D Minor, Nr. 2. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35

Budapest Festival Orchestra. Soloist Renaud Capuçon violin. Conductor Iván Fischer

EUR 59 / 54 / 48 / 30 / 14