Program description 7 & 8 march 2026
Josef Suk: Scherzo Fantastique (Opus 25)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 (Opus 10)
Young, idiosyncratic, original
Spring has arrived. The perfect season to let the sun shine on music written by composers at the beginning of their careers. There are three of these early works on the program.
We start with the Scherzo Fantastique by the Czech composer Josef Suk. Suk was a student of DvoÅ™ák. In this work, written at the age of 29, he breaks away from his mentor. It's a witty, lighthearted work (Scherzo Fantastique could be translated as "fantastic joke"), in which you're repeatedly caught off-guard. It's a joy to play, especially for the woodwinds.
Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet instantly transports you to a completely different world: the bloody world of the feuding Montague and Capulet families. And within that dark, harsh world, resounds one of the most beautiful love melodies ever written. Just like Suk, Tchaikovsky was 29 when he wrote this work. It's the first work in which his characteristic dramatic style begins to take shape. The work immediately put him on the map.
After the intermission, Shostakovich's First Symphony is on the program. Shostakovich wrote the symphony when he was only 18: it was his graduation project at the conservatory. The symphony was clearly written by a young man. It's full of musical jokes, and the themes tumble over one another. But then comes the deeply emotional third movement, followed by an intense fourth. Shostakovich, young as he was, had found his own voice. Within a year, the First Symphony was being performed worldwide.