And that's not even to mention the soloist for the evening: although 30-year-old French pianist Lucas Debargue "only" finished” fourth at the 2016 Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, he was universally lauded and won the Moscow Music Critics' Award. His adventurous career developed along a different path than those of celebrated stars, as he was not born into a family of musicians and began playing the piano relatively late, at the age of 11. He once even put aside his music studies for a few years in order to focus on literary and art theory. Tonight he'll be playing Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, which is rarely heard despite enjoying great success among audiences and critics alike at its original première. The composer, who was inspired, among other things, by a holiday he took in Egypt, referred to his work as a sea voyage. The piece will be framed by the most frequently performed - albeit still rarely heard in Hungary - movement from the incidental music My Homeland that Dvořák's wrote for a drama by František Ferdinand Šamberk's, the overture, interwoven with Czech melodies, and Schumann's dramatic Fourth Symphony.

Presented by: Concerto Budapest