Under the baton of Jaap van Zweden, the Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) performs irresistible music by Wagner, Respighi’s colourful Pini di Roma, Korngold’s Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos, ánd the world premiere of Zarina’s Bloom.

Come and experience an evening of evocative and cinematic music conducted by Jaap van Zweden. The concert opens with the world premiere of Bloom by the young Latvian composer Annija Anna Zarina. Soloist Leonidas Kavakos then performs Korngold’s Violin Concerto. With its beautiful melodies, the Austrian composer looked back on his extensive career as a Hollywood film composer. Wagner served as a major inspiration for many film music composers. He tied together the beginning and end of his opera Tristan und Isolde, the story of an ill-fated love, to create a magnificent and very moving orchestral work.

After the interval, the programme features Respighi’s colourful declaration of love to ancient Rome, Pini di Roma. Children playing in the Villa Borghese gardens, a nocturnal scene with a real nightingale, Roman legions marching out… The Italian composer pulled out all the stops to have the orchestra conjure up these images in the mind’s eye. The popularity of the work has rightly endured. 

Program:

Zarina – Bloom (world première)

Korngold – Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35 (Leonidas Kavakos violin)

Wagner – Vorspiel und Liebestod (from Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90)

Respighi – Pini di Roma (from Roman trilogy, P. 141)