4th symphony concert

Guillaume Lekeu Adagio for Strings, Op. 3
Philip Glass Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra
Hector Berlioz Symphonie fantastique: Épisode de la vie d’un artiste, Op. 14

Pure colour unites the three works of this concert, ranging from nobly luminous string colours from the pen of the young Belgian Romantic Guillaume Lekeu to the epitome of ‘narrative’ symphonic music and the minimalism of the American Philip Glass. Glass’s Concerto for Saxophone Quartet, composed in 1995, emphasises in each of its movements one of the four saxophones, from soprano to baritone, with its own individual character. The palette of expressive nuances ranges from lyrical melancholy to exuberant virtuosity, from dreamy flair to musical argument in sounds.

Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique stirred up the music world at the time, for in it the composer's personal experience finds its way into the ‘absolute’ musical world of the symphony, and Berlioz imbues the sophisticated orchestral form with autobiographical references. The idée fixe, the central musical theme that runs through and unites all the movements in the most varied forms, makes the work a kind of novel in the language of sounds – an absolute cult piece of the symphonic repertoire!