ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester / Gigashvili / Poschner

»... every time I am thrilled by the special quality, dedication, passion and artistry of this orchestra«, says Markus Poschner about the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. With this concert evening, with which Poschner takes up his position as chief conductor, the orchestra is looking to a hopeful future. He has led the Bruckner Orchestra Linz since 2017 and the Basel Symphony Orchestra since 2025. He shares his versatility and openness with the evening's pianist, the great talent Giorgi Gigashvili: Poschner was a jazz pianist before his conducting career, while Gigashvili would almost have become a pop musician.

Works by Kendell, Ravel and Stravinsky
A work by Hannah Kendell, a British composer with roots in Guyana, opens the evening. She was inspired to write »O flower of fire« by a poem by Guyanese poet and political activist Martin Carter, who has campaigned tirelessly for the Caribbean region. Instruments such as harps, gongs and harmonicas contribute to the richness of the soundscape. Ravel's Piano Concerto then opens with a crack of the whip, a cheerful, spirited work with echoes of blues and jazz, which the composer had encountered on a trip to America, and a touchingly elegiac middle movement. The second half of the concert programme features Igor Stravinsky's »Le sacre du printemps«, a piece that caused a huge scandal at its premiere in 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. However, with its ritual dances and archaic sounds, it is now one of the classics of modernism.