Musical Steppe

Mowed down by a merciless illness at the age of 24, Lili Boulanger remains one of the most promising talents in French music. D’un matin de printemps had a triple genesis for various instruments before the orchestral version presented here. It is a lively dance, quite Debussy-like in its harmonies but also demonstrating astonishing audacity.

It was in Clarens, where it was composed, that Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major was performed for the very first time, in 1878, during a private concert in a version for violin and piano with the composer at the keyboard and his friend Iosif Kotek on the violin.

Officially premiered in Vienna three years later, it was to quickly become a pillar of the violinists’ repertoire. Written according to its author “to glorify the human soul”, Symphony No. 5, Op. 100 is one of Sergei Prokofiev’s most popular works. From start to finish, there reigns a great breath of youth and romantic exaltation.