PROGRAMME
BÉLA BARTÓK: Romanian Folk Dances Sz. 56 (arranged for String Orchestra)
JOSEPH HAYDN: Cello Concerto no. 2 in D major Hob. VIIb/2
BÉLA BARTÓK: Divertimento for String Orchestra Sz. 113
JOSEPH HAYDN: Symphony no. 96 in D major Hob. I/96
- Conductor François-Xavier Roth
Violoncello Jean-Guihen Queyras
ABOUT THIS CONCERT
Broadcast Date:
3 April 2018 at 20:00 on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
On this tour, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra continues its exploration of music closely linked to Austro-Hungarian musical traditions. As the meeting place and melting pot for different European cultures, Central Europe has facilitated, in many ways, the formation of a European identity. This journey, which began with the MCO concert at the Lucerne Festival 2017 and continues in the upcoming seasons, was developed together with conductor François-Xavier Roth, who directed the MCO in Lucerne and who returns to conduct the MCO on this project.
This tour sees the MCO and François-Xavier Roth revisiting the music of Béla Bartók and Joseph Haydn, composers who – despite coming from two different eras and cultural traditions – are synonymous with Central Europe. French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, the Artist in Residence of this year’s Heidelberger Frühling, joins the orchestra for Haydn’s Cello Concerto no. 2, one of the most important works in the canon of cello repertoire.
This concert marks not only the opening concert of this year’s Heidelberger Frühling, but also the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the orchestra and the festival. In a few weeks, the MCO returns to Heidelberg with Artistic Advisor Daniele Gatti to perform the festival’s closing concert – as it did for the 2017 edition of the festival, with conductor Mikhail Pletnev and pianist Daniil Trifonov.