Struggle, struggle and more struggle: Shostakovich created his music The Great Citizen for Fridrikh Ermler's film of the same title. The work follows the life of Sergei Kirov, who fell victim to the internecine political conflicts of Stalinism, and conveys the frenzied atmosphere in the Soviet Union during the 'purges' of the '20s and '30s. Prokofiev completed his second piano concerto in 1913, but the score was destroyed during the Russian Revolution. The composer had to reconstruct it from memory in 1923. The most appealing of the struggles, in our view, is the one waged - triumphantly - by the hero of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony with his own fate. The Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Radio Luxembourg's music ensemble, has been in operation since 1933. Its comprises nearly a hundred musicians from twenty different nations. Their conductor, Gustavo Gimeno, is now in his mid-40s. He previously served as a percussionist with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Only 27, Seong-Jin Cho has won top awards at the Hamamatsu, Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions, among others, and performed with such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev and Marek Janowski.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest