Love Stories of the Century

Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet

In 1868, fellow composer Balakirev suggested that Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) might write something based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Balakirev even went so far as to issue precise instructions concerning the structure, keys and the nature of the themes. The premiere of the resulting fantasy overture in 1870 was not a great success; neither Tchaikovsky nor Balakirev was altogether satisfied. Twice Tchaikovsky revised the score, and the final version was not premiered until 1886. Again the reception was cool; the first-night audiences in both Vienna and Paris were far from impressed. Yet Romeo and Juliet is nowadays one of Tchaikovsky’s best-known and best-loved works. It does not as such tell the story, yet the characters are easily recognisable: the Friar Lorenzo who means well but whose good intentions lead to tragedy, the conflicting families the Montagues and Capulets, and the doomed star-struck lovers.

Heidi Sundblad-Halme: The Enchanted Belt

The half-hour ballet The Enchanted Belt by Finnish composer-conductor Heidi Sundblad-Halme (1903–1973) was first performed at the Finnish Opera in 1939. It then got put aside and forgotten – like many works by female composers at the time – and is only now being revived as part of the HUOM project of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra seeking out undeservedly overlooked repertoire. Described by the composer as a choreographic fairytale, The Enchanted Belt reflects the fantasy world that was her hallmark – a world of goblins, fairies and wild beasts. Ruling over them all is the god Pan, represented as in many of her other works by a solo flute. A triangular drama that ends in a duel and death is played out by three characters lost in the forest: Nito, Carita, whose enchanted belt makes her irresistibly seductive, and a hunter. Sundblad-Halme probably also wrote the script. The music bears certain similarities with the second and third movements of her orchestral suite opus 11 she had been working on for years. The suite from the ballet Enchanted Belt is compiled by conductor Emilia Hoving.

Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances

Many an artist has been inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, not least Pyotr Tchaikovsky. But one of the best-known variations on this ancient story is undoubtedly West Side Story, the musical by Leonard Bernstein that transfers the events from Verona to modern Manhattan. in 1960, three years after the premiere, he chose nine scenes from it as a suite called Symphonic Dances. A familiarity with the story is not, however, necessary when listening to the suite, though it does trace a similar dramatic span. “Why are these dances called symphonic?” asked Bernstein’s assistant Jack Gottlieb and replied: “Simply because the dance music, even in its original format, is symphonically conceived. Relatively few thematic ideas, combined with each other and metamorphosed into completely new shapes, are all that are necessary to meet the varying dramatic requirements, This is music on its own terms, music that does not have to depend upon presupposed knowledge of the unfolding events on stage.”

Emilia Hoving

Finnish conductor Emilia Hoving (born 1994) is firmly established internationally. In the 2024–2025 season, Hoving returns to conduct the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She also makes her debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw. Additional first appearances include the Belgian National, the Castilla y León Symphony, the Royal Scottish National, the Stavanger Symphony, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the Tasmanian Symphony, and the Trondheim Symphony orchestras.

Emilia Hoving began her conducting studies in 2015 with Jorma Panula and later continued at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with professors Sakari Oramo and Atso Almila. Hoving’s career was launched as an assistant to Hannu Lintu at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2019–2020) and Mikko Franck at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (2020–2022).