Winter / 11.30

Why do we love winter so much? Because it brings Christmas, Carnival at the end of the season, and all the joys of sledging and ice skating.

Set at Christmas time, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet The Nutcracker is represented in today’s programme by two delightful excerpts. From Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, we hear Winter, a violin concerto that vividly portrays the icy cold of the season, the warmth of a cosy room, and even the excitement of skating.

The festive spirit of Christmas is evoked by the chorale from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata No. 147, while Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart captures the pleasures of a sleigh ride in one of his German Dances.

The colourful world of Carnival comes to life through Johann Strauss II’s sparkling Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, two humorous movements from Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals, and a graceful waltz by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

The concert series was founded by Gábor Fenyő, who also serves as its artistic adviser.