Giovanni Guzzo & Liszt Academy’s String Orchestra Presented by Liszt Academy

Giovanni Guzzo began his career as a wunderkind in his homeland, Venezuela, then perfected his skills in Madrid and London. Currently, he is concertmaster of the former ensemble of Sándor Végh, Camerata Salzburg. He is half Italian, therefore one could say that Italian music runs through his veins, something he proudly avows through the compilation of this programme. The concert opens with the Italian Respighi’s concert hall speciality organ suite written in 1905, which daringly combines modern with Baroque. Then Guzzo – leading the Liszt Academy String Orchestra – performs the violin concerto by Haydn, which the composer wrote for the Italian concertmaster of his orchestra returning to the Eszterházy court around 1765. After the intermission, there is a performance of Tchaikovsky's marvellous, full-blooded Romantic composition, Souvenir de Florence, which started life as a string sextet but is even more intense played by a string orchestra.