NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester

«Feria» is the Spanish word for a festival or fair in the open air, the exuberance of which Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg alludes to in his orchestral piece of that name: With its explosive rhythms, it fully lives up to its title. Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 is packed full of cantilenas and unbridled playfulness: The final movement alone, with its flavour of Hungary, would be enough for a celebrated young violinist like María Dueñas to devote herself to this work. Modest Mussorgsky’s «Pictures at an Exhibition», composed for piano, only conquered the world once it had been transformed into Maurice Ravel’s sensitive orchestral version, which fascinates according to all the rules of the art of instrumentation. An ideal programme for the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, that collective of north German masters, under their Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert.