56th Bratislava Music Festival Opening Concert

The oeuvre of Ján Cikker, with which he enriched the Slovak music, is exceptionally generous. Not only did he write 10 operas, he also proved himself to be a competent and unusually prolific symphony writer. By opening the Bratislava Music Festival 2021 with his work we commemorate the 110th birth anniversary of the composer.

In 1928 the French composer Maurice Ravel realized a fourth-month concert tour in the USA. The compositional offspring of this American journey was a playful, although extremely exacting for the performer, Piano Concerto in G major, which secured a permanent fame for the author. Tonight the concerto will be played by the Spanish pianist Javier Perianes, praised by critics with the words 'precision and speed of his fingerwork can be quite shattering… such a combination of evident modesty and utter brilliance'.

Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring, Pictures from Pagan Russia (1913), has become one of iconic opuses of the 20th-century symphonic music and to this day it captivates both experts and audiences. Delivered by the Slovak Philharmonic under the baton of the conducting magician Pinchas Steinberg the programme of the BMF's opening concert is a promise of an extraordinary music experience.