Budapest Festival Orchestra

Three works that at one time were shunned and yet today rank among the world’s most famous works. Two guest artists who even in their youth were playing together with the biggest names in the business. One unforgettable Russian recital. What 50 or so years ago was considered technically unplayable, today constitutes a part of the core repertoire. Leopold Auer, to whom Tchaikovsky dedicated his violin concerto, deemed the work too difficult, while commissioning theatres shrank from Prokofiev’s opera and ballet music. The beautiful, melodic overture of the nearly 4-hour-long opera War and Peace evokes a sense of peace, being both heroic and lyrical. Tchaikovsky sketched out his violin concerto (1878) in just 11 days and wrote it in under two weeks. The world’s most famous and complex violin solo (according to some) is performed by Renaud Capuçon, at one time concertmaster for Claudio Abbado, under the baton of 30-year-old Israeli conductor Lahav Shani. The ballet music for Romeo and Juliet ranks as one of Prokofiev’s most richly embroidered works. Cheated out of a premiere, the composer decided to recycle various movements from the ballet in three suites for public performance.