The audience listening to the Belgrade Philharmonic’s concert at Kolarac Hall last night attended one of the most impressive events of the concert season. The orchestra, Chief Conductor Gabriel Feltz, and pianist Sunwook Kim gave an unforgettable performance and received a prolonged standing ovation.

The unusual program concept and top performance of all the musicians, especially piano star Sunwook Kim, resulted in an amazing concert presentation of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major and the Belgrade Philharmonic’s premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety.

Sunwook Kim, a pianist of remarkable skill and style, performed both of these compositions of completely different genres. A special atmosphere is created when an orchestra is delighted with the soloist and Sunwook Kim left everyone breathless, ending with Schubert’s Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major in his encore. The pianist himself stated that his performance of the Mozart piano concerto, together with Feltz and the Belgrade Philharmonic, was the best in his career so far.

The Belgrade Philharmonic’s tireless superhero, Chief Conductor Gabriel Feltz, deserves credit for the spectacular premiere of Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety. Through the atmosphere of a New York bar and very deep themes and philosophies, the performance given by the musicians on the stage, as well as those who were “invisible” and whose music wafted in from the corridor of Kolarac Hall, kept the audience literally on the edge of their seats. Leonard Bernstein himself was in Belgrade in 1959 with the New York Philharmonic, with the intention of performing his Age of Anxiety together with other works of American contemporary music, but he changed his mind at the last moment and presented a composition by Beethoven. More than six decades later, today’s audience had the privilege of experiencing this masterpiece thanks to Gabriel Feltz and the Belgrade Philharmonic.

However, this day at the Belgrade Philharmonic was not just about this unforgettable concert. After the rehearsal, the musicians made preparations for the “Beethoven Marathon” that is to take place in June. Then the concert was followed by a presentation of our new 2022-23 concert season presented to the musicians by Chief Conductor Gabriel Feltz and Belgrade Philharmonic program managers Asja Radonjić and Danica Maksimović.