Opening the concert will be the Overture of Haydn's most popular work, which he himself recognized as his best: Armida. The plot is one of many taken from Torquato Tasso's masterpiece, Gerusalemme Liberata, but this time the center is not the hero Rinaldo but his antagonist, the witch Armida. The concert continues in a dialogue between Classicism and the twentieth century. Kodály replies to Haydn with the Dances of Galanta, an autobiographical suite, capable of nostalgic languors and frenetic upsurges, which evokes the gypsy music heard during his childhood in the Slovakian town. This combination between Haydn and Kodály is not accidental: the Esterházys, the famous family for whom Haydn worked for almost 30 years, came from Galanta. The dialogue continues with Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, last work still immersed in smooth classical atmospheres of the great composer from Bonn. And the scherzo inserted in the second movement is very classic (not by chance “Allegretto scherzando”): Beethoven mimics the metronome invented by Maelzel, who was not by chance also the promoter of the concert in which the Octave was performed for the first time . The evening ends with a return to the twentieth century with the wonderful Concerto for piano and orchestra n. 2 by Shostakovich, with Alexander Lonquich in the double role of soloist and conductor. Šostakovič dedicates the concert to his son Maxim, also a pianist, and immerses him in a fairy-tale character that also inspired Disney for a short film included in Fantasia 2000. Beethoven mimics the metronome invented by Maelzel, who was not by chance also the promoter of the concert in which the Octave was performed for the first time. He closes the evening with the return to the twentieth century with the wonderful Concerto for piano and orchestra n. 2 by Shostakovich, with Alexander Lonquich in the double role of soloist and director. Šostakovič dedicates the concert to his son Maxim, also a pianist, and immerses him in a fairy-tale character that also inspired Disney for a short film included in Fantasia 2000. Beethoven mimics the metronome invented by Maelzel, who was not by chance also the promoter of the concert in which the Octave was performed for the first time. He closes the evening with the return to the twentieth century with the wonderful Concerto for piano and orchestra n. 2 by Shostakovich, with Alexander Lonquich in the double role of soloist and director. Šostakovič dedicates the concert to his son Maxim, also a pianist, and immerses him in a fairy-tale character that also inspired Disney for a short film included in Fantasia 2000. with Alexander Lonquich in the dual role of soloist and director. Šostakovič dedicates the concert to his son Maxim, also a pianist, and immerses him in a fairy-tale character that also inspired Disney for a short film included in Fantasia 2000. with Alexander Lonquich in the dual role of soloist and director. Šostakovič dedicates the concert to his son Maxim, also a pianist, and immerses him in a fairy-tale character that also inspired Disney for a short film included in Fantasia 2000.
