Three major works will be on the programme of this concert conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk who in 2013 charmed the ONL with a concert at the Festival de Montpellier. This young Russian conductor trained at today’s best school of conducting, the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki where, like many Finnish or Estonian conductors, he studied with great legends such as Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula. A dazzling orchestral firework display and a challenge for all conductors, Petrouchka is an ideal work for him to demonstrate his talent. Hamlet is also an exceptionally powerful piece. Liszt wrote his tenth symphonic poem after attending a performance of Shakespeare’s play in Weimar. Deeply impressed he decided to write a very personal interpretation: a conquering, strong-willed, intelligent Hamlet; an Ophelia who goes mad because in the end she is unworthy of Hamlet.

As for Beethoven’s titanic “Emperor, pinnacle of his concertos, no need for a presentation. Suffice to say that we have great pleasure in welcoming back Jean-Yves Thibaudet, one of the most loyal and precious partners of the Orchestre national de Lyon.