The year 1901 saw major events taking place in the music world: Rachmaninoff completed his second piano concerto and Sibelius started work on his second symphony. Both works represented breakthroughs for their authors. The former helped the Russian composer to give up alcohol and come out of a depression caused by an unsuccessful première, while the latter brought Sibelius enormous acclaim all over Europe. As health issues have forced Dmitri Kitayenko to withdraw from this concert, Gergely Madaras will be conducting the Budapest Festival orchestra. Serving as the soloist, as planned, will be the "wonderful, passionate and endlessly virtuosic" South Korean Yeol Eum Son. The Times, for its part, called the young pianist "a model of clarity and fleetness". All of these are attributes she will need to play Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto. The central thought behind the symphony by Sibelius to be performed in the second half of the concert came into being during a peaceful excursion to Italy. This is the last work in which the composer is clearly paying tribute to classical forms and his illustrious predecessors, including Beethoven.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra