THE MUSICAL ELEGANCE OF THE 7TH WINTER FESTIVAL

The Winter Festival will conclude with three masterpieces from the treasury of classical works performed by the Slovenian Youth Orchestra under the baton of Živa Ploj Peršuh. The evening will open with Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn, which was written as an ode to Joseph Haydn and is the composer's breakthrough work, as it is the first composition for large orchestra without a soloist. This will be followed by the Violin Concerto No.1 by one of the most important virtuosos of music, Henryk Wieniawski. He wrote it on commission for Russian noblemen, confirming his reputation as a composer and violinist. Written during his stay in Russia, the work is characterised by rich melodic lines, technically demanding interludes and passionate passages. We will conclude with Beethoven's Symphony No 3, better known as the 'Eroica', which the composer wrote during a period when he was losing his hearing. This personal hardship probably contributed to the intensity and depth of expression in the symphony, which, as well as being revolutionary in the development of symphonic music, also influenced later generations of composers.

Rok Zaletel Černoš, who this year was the first Slovenian violinist to take part in the prestigious P. I. Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, will be the soloist in Wieniawski's First Violin Concerto. A scholarship holder of the Municipality of Ljubljana, he is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Prof. A. Sorokov.

Programme:

1. Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn in B flat major, Op. 56a
2. Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No.1 in F sharp minor, Op. 14
3. van Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E flat major, Op. 55, "Eroica"

(23 February, Slovenian Philharmonic, 19.30)