Explore what's on: Friday 16 May 2008

RNCM Junior Fellow in Conducting Ewa Strusi´nska opens this concert with a symphonic poem by fellow Pole, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz.

A fitting opener, Karlowicz’s music is both fresh and original and awash with the influence of his prophet, Richard Strauss.Bartók wrote his colourful and confident Dance Suite in 1923 for a concert marking the 50th anniversary of Budapest. It immediately became one of his most popular pieces. With the weight of Beethoven’s legacy behind him, poor Brahms was 43 before he was satisfied with his first attempt at a symphony. It’s a fairly stormy affair that begins on an ominous note, but in the finale an optimistic tune for solo horn emerges like the sun from behind a cloud, a Beethovian Ode to Joy-like theme which propels the music to its climax in a blaze of triumphant glory.