• Tue 17.10.
  • 7.30 p.m.
  • Switzerland
    ·Locarno
    ·Kirche San Francesco

Works by Strauss, Ravel and Tchaikovsky

Programme

    • Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
    • ›Metamorphosen‹ for 23 solo strings AV 142
    • Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
    • Concerto for piano and orchestra in G major M 83
    • Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
    • Symphony No. 4 in F minor op. 36

Conductor

Jérémie Rhorer

With his compelling interpretations of Mozart, Jérémie Rhorer took the international music scene by storm almost twenty years ago. Since then, this French conductor and composer has successfully moved between opera and symphonic music. Rhorer was already performing at a high level as a child and went on to study conducting with Emil Tchakarov, Karajan’s renowned assistant, before finally finding his artistic calling whilst studying composition with Thierry Escaich.

Through Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, which he founded in 2005 and continues to lead to this day, Rhorer is regarded as one of the pioneers of historically informed performance practice for the Classical and Romantic repertoire, exploring a path stretching from Haydn and Mozart through Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to Bruckner, and from Gluck and Berlioz to Verdi and Wagner –  always with the aim of reviving the timbres and theatricality, in keeping with the spirit of the work.

Guest engagements regularly take him to renowned orchestras worldwide as well as to Europe’s leading opera houses and festivals in Vienna, Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, Salzburg, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Venice and Florence, with a repertoire expanding from Mozart to Schoenberg.

In 2025, Jérémie Rhorer received the Honor of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.

This sought-after conductor has been working closely with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years. Their current collaboration focuses on works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Piano

Francesco Piemontesi

Born in Locarno, Francesco Piemontesi is a pianist of exceptional refinement of expression, which is allied to a consummate technical skill. The ›Neue Zürcher Zeitung‹ calls him a »Wizard of Sound«. Of his great teacher and mentor, Alfred Brendel, Piemontesi says that Brendel taught him »to love the detail of things«. In his many concerto, recital and chamber music appearances, he reveals all the mesmerising facets of his artistry and takes his audiences on a fascinating discovery journey. Piemontesi has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras, from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and from the London to the NHK Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he gives regular guest performances at festivals such as the Salzburg, the Lucerne and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festivals as well as at the BBC Proms.
In addition to the concert stage, Piemontesi is equally at home performing chamber music with a variety of partners including Leif Ove Andsnes, Christian Tetzlaff, Jörg Widmann and Janine Jansen. In solo recital, Piemontesi delivers pure piano poetry to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, at the Rheingau Musik Festival and at the Wigmore Hall in London, where he was celebrated for his Mozart Odyssey of the complete piano sonatas. Since 2012, Piemontesi has been the Artistic Director of the Swiss classic festival Settimane Musicali di Ascona.

Conductor

Jérémie Rhorer

With his compelling interpretations of Mozart, Jérémie Rhorer took the international music scene by storm almost twenty years ago. Since then, this French conductor and composer has successfully moved between opera and symphonic music. Rhorer was already performing at a high level as a child and went on to study conducting with Emil Tchakarov, Karajan’s renowned assistant, before finally finding his artistic calling whilst studying composition with Thierry Escaich.

Through Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, which he founded in 2005 and continues to lead to this day, Rhorer is regarded as one of the pioneers of historically informed performance practice for the Classical and Romantic repertoire, exploring a path stretching from Haydn and Mozart through Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to Bruckner, and from Gluck and Berlioz to Verdi and Wagner –  always with the aim of reviving the timbres and theatricality, in keeping with the spirit of the work.

Guest engagements regularly take him to renowned orchestras worldwide as well as to Europe’s leading opera houses and festivals in Vienna, Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, Salzburg, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Venice and Florence, with a repertoire expanding from Mozart to Schoenberg.

In 2025, Jérémie Rhorer received the Honor of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.

This sought-after conductor has been working closely with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years. Their current collaboration focuses on works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.