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.Forget the music stands. Aurora performs Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique from memory, returning to the game-changing symphony that broke new ground in every direction.
But first, Mozart’s overture followed by Tchaikovsky’s soaring Violin Concerto, performed by South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim in her Aurora debut. Once considered virtually unplayable, it’s a work of soaring melodies, lyrical beauty and breathtaking virtuosity.
And then – Symphonie fantastique. Written in 1830, just three years after Beethoven’s death, Berlioz was only 26 when he took on the legacy of nine game-changing symphonies and transformed what a symphony could do. He expanded the orchestra, stretched its emotional range and, most radically, used the symphony to tell a story – one of love, obsession, dreams and a witches’ sabbath.
“The playing had tremendous zest and, in the quieter passages, a pellucid beauty. Clearly these musicians had learnt Berlioz’s surreal masterpiece not just by heart, but with heart.”
(The Times on Symphonie fantastique, 2019)