Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, conductor

Ludwig van Beethoven
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Richard Strauss

Egmont, overture Op. 84
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor KV 550
A Hero’s Life / Ein Heldenleben Op. 4

The prominent Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performing for the first time in Slovakia will open the BMF in its festive 50th year led by the conductor of world fame Zubin Mehta, whose baton has the ability to unite people in the name of great music and understanding.
The evening will start with a popular overture Egmont, written by Ludwig van Beethoven for Goethe’s drama. Similarly to Beethoven’s Egmont also Mozart’s Symphony in G minor has become a musical icon. Behind the Mozartean purity of texture there is an ambitiously elaborated harmony used even by Arnold Schoenberg while presenting his atonality. The last one from the collection of Richard Strauss’s symphonic poems – A Hero’s Life – brings virtuoso orchestrated episodes from the life of a hero. His fate is presented by Strauss as a fate of every musician active in the chaotic period at the end of the 19th century.