Prokofiev Elgar Petrenko Vondráček

While Russia was tormented by war and revolution in the run up to the events of 1917, Sergei Prokofiev wrote his light and nostalgic Symphony no.1 in a little village near St. Petersburg. He was inspired by Joseph Haydn’s symphonies, but the style and sound is distinctively his own.

Niccolo Paganini’s famous 24th caprice for solo violin has inspired many composers. Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody is one of the most inventive sets of variations on the theme. Rachmaninoff himself was the piano soloist at the world premiere in 1934, and the piece was an immediate success.

In the autumn of 1898, the 41-year-old composer Edward Elgar returned from a long and uninspiring day of teaching. After dinner and a cigar, he sat down at his piano and began improvising. His wife Alice was enamoured by one of the themes he used, and the composer amused himself by playing it according to the personalities of different friends and family members. Elgar developed this idea of portraying his friends and family. The result was one of his best loved works, the Enigma Variations.

The piece was premiered in London in 1899, and contributed substantially to establishing Elgar as an internationally renowned composer. The title refers to a musical enigma the composer mentioned on several occasions: a secret theme which all the variations are connected to. To the great frustration of scholars ever since, Elgar never revealed the secret theme.

Helge Sunde’s percussion concerto was a part of the original program, but is postponed indefinitely.