Alexandre Bloch will conduct two milestones in the French repertoire. With Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Debussy revolutionised musical norms in just 10 minutes. Similarly, the audiences of 1830 were left astounded by the Symphonie fantastique. Swept away by Berlioz’s fulgurant music, we are transported into the dreams and aspirations of a young artist, 26 years of age.  Almost 200 years on, the romantic fever driving this work is just as compelling.

For the second concert in the tour, Alexandre Bloch has chosen two musical dreams. In the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, the solo flute is joined by the sensuous sonorities of the orchestra, carrying us away to a fairy-tale Sicily under a radiant sun.  Dreamlike magic also permeates Concerto for Orchestra. Exiled and in poor health, Bartók was commissioned to write the work in 1943. Driven by despair, the Hungarian composer accomplished a sublime farewell to his lost homeland through a brilliant orchestral score.