1st Symphony Concert

Edward Elgar "The Wand of Youth (Music to a Child's Play)". Suite No. 1 op. 1a
John Rutter Partita
Lili Boulanger "D'un matin de printemps"
Maurice Ravel "Daphnis et Chloé. Symphonie choréographique" (excerpts)

The inaugural concert of new General Music Director Levente Török is built around the theme of beginnings and youth. In "The Wand of Youth", Elgar looks back some 40 years and gives full orchestral form to melodies he had sketched as a teenager.

John Rutter's Partita pays musical tribute to the heroes of his own youth - Maurice Ravel, William Walton, and George Gershwin. Lili Boulanger was just 24 when she wrote her final orchestral work "D'un matin de printemps"; though already seriously ill, the short piece radiates the lightness of a spring morning.

The programme closes with Ravel's ballet "Daphnis et Chloé", which opens with a sunrise and unfolds across an impressionist palette of colour.