Oeuvre: Ouverture en ut majeur « dans le style italien », D.591

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra excels in a concert of works by youthful composers, with Rafał Blechacz playing Chopin. 

As musicians, conductor Bernard Haitink and pianist Maria João Pires have certain qualities in common – they both display a serenity, exquisite control and a dedicated yet no-nonsense attitude to performance.

You know that it is really warm in the hall when a special announcement before the concert is made apologizing to all the ladies in the house that the men in the orchestra will be playing without their suit jackets due to the heat. We in the audience, fanning ourselves incessantly, were only too happy to be forgiving, as the orchestra must have been fairly melting under the lights.