Romantic Splendour

A wind of optimism blows over this evening's programme. A great traveller and a cultured man, Mendelssohn had stopped for a long time in Italy, dazzled by the light and the landscapes as well as by the works of art that he saw everywhere. His Symphony No. 4, 'Italian', describes his wonder with all the force and vivacity of his youth.

Brief and conceived in a single movement, Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1 unleashes itself in an irresistible whirlwind, attacking the instrument's range in a constant dialogue with the orchestra. Romantic and lyrical, it ends in a brilliant A major synonymous with faith in life.

After the evocation of the hero, in the Napoleonic sense of the term, and before that of his own destiny, Beethoven grants himself a more serene break with his Symphony No. 4 in B flat major with a cheerful, if not frankly "unbuttoned" (Beethoven's word) climate which in no way excludes rhythmic and formal innovations.