© Andrew McCoy
Described by the Guardian as having “gripping, exhilaratingly good orchestral playing, surging with energy, laser-sharp focus and collective daring… [and] a technical prowess that is downright terrifying”, it has provided an exceptional bridge between music colleges and the professional music world for generations of Europe’s finest musicians since its foundation in 1976. The Orchestra has worked with many of the world’s greatest musicians including Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis, and particularly its three Music Directors and current Chief Conductor: founding Music Director Claudio Abbado, former Music Director Vladimir Ashkenazy, former Music Director and current Conductor Laureate Bernard Haitink, and Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko. The EUYO’s 4,000 alumni have all come through the Orchestra’s rigorous, annual audition process conducted in all EU Member States, and many are now notable conductors, soloists, teachers, and instrumentalists working with major orchestras in the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In conjunction with Brexit, the orchestra relocated from London to Ferrara, Italy in 2018. In 2019 EUYO’s three-day residency at Young Euro Classic, including a live broadcast of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony onto Gendarmenmarkt with a total of 7000 viewers, was a particular highlight of the festival.
Konzerthaus, Berlin
© Marco Borggreve
Originally from Valencia, Spain, the conductor Gustavo Gimeno studied percussion and piano as a teenager and was a member of EUYO’s percussion section. In 2001 he was appointed a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam as principal percussionist. Gimeno only began his professional conducting career in 2012, with strong encouragement from Mariss Jansons and Claudio Abbado, whom he assisted. Since 2015 the 46-year-old has been chief conductor of the Orchestra Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL); in 2020 he also became chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has undertaken several tours of Europe and South America with the OPL, featuring prominent soloists such as Yuja Wang, Leonidas Kavakos, Frank-Peter Zimmermann and Bryn Terfel. As a guest conductor Gimeno has been invited to the most important orchestras in Europe and the USA; in the autumn of 2021 he made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. He has also made several recordings with the OPL, including Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle and symphonies by Franck, Mahler and Shostakovich.
© Simon Fowler
The French violinist Renaud Capuçon is one of the world’s elite practitioners of his instrument, a regular guest on all the important concert stages in Europe, America and Asia. In Berlin he has performed with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Bernard Haitink, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester under Robin Ticciati and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Antonio Pappano. One of his most important mentors was Claudio Abbado, who appointed the violinist concertmaster of his Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 1998. The 46-year-old’s chamber music partners include not only his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon, but also pianists Martha Argerich and Katia Buniatishvili and cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Mischa Maisky. Capuçon is the artistic director of the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence and the Sommets musicaux in Gstaad as well as the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. At the centenary of the armistice of 1918 in Paris, he performed as an ambassador of France, as he did at the G7 Summit in Biarritz in 2019. Among his latest CD productions are violin concerti by Rihm, Dusapin and Mantovani and Bach’s Violin Sonatas. He plays the Guarneri del Gesù “Panette” (1737) formerly owned by Isaac Stern.
Scherzo fantastique Op. 3 (”Flight of the Bee”) (1907-1908)
”Poème” in E-flat-major Op. 25 (1896)
”Havanaise” Op. 83 (1887)
Suite from ”Der Rosenkavalier” Op. 59 (1911/1944)
„La Valse” (1919-1920)
About the concert
Since its founding by Claudio Abbado in 1976, the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) has carried the European flag aloft, demonstrating the continent’s unity in music. Every year, the best musicians from all the 27 EU states are selected via auditions – and the fantastic results have inspired standing ovations at Young Euro Classic more than once! This year’s programme is tailored to the EUYO’s strengths; the French flavour is due not only to the outstanding violinist Renaud Capuçon, who performs perennial favourites by Chausson and Saint-Saëns. As the main work of the evening, the Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno has chosen the virtuosic and sensuous Rosenkavalier-Suite by Richard Strauss. Ravel’s symphonic dance poem La Valse forms the breath-taking finale of this concert. Glittering brilliance is the name of this game!
Broadcast
The concert will be streamed LIVE on ARTE CONCERT and will be available afterwards in the media library: arteconcert.com.
The concert will be recorded and broadcasted German wide on August, 11th on 20:03 in “Konzert” by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – through Dlf Audiothek app, UKW, DAB+ and deutschlandfunkkultur.de