Listening to 19th-century orchestral masterpieces played in a way that combines the subjectivity of artistic interpretation with the objectivity of research on the performance practices of past centuries gives the listeners a completely new perspective. We will hear wonderful compositions of the Romantic era by Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann performed on period instruments by the French Insula Orchestra. It was founded in 2012 by the renowned conductor Laurence Equilbey. After only five years of activity, the artists took up residence in the newly built arts centre La Seine Musicale, located on the outskirts of Paris.

The concert will begin with Frederic Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, the work about which François Fétis wrote in Revue Musicale: “There is soul in these melodies, there is fantasy in these passages, and there is originality everywhere.” At the NFM, the solo part on a historical piano will be performed by the French pianist Lucas Debargue, who became known for his performance in the International Pyotr Tchaikovsky Music Competition in Moscow in 2015. Interestingly, earlier he almost gave up playing the instrument and devoted himself to the study of literature. Today, his broad interests in the humanities serve as an inspiration for playing.

After the intermission we will hear Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4. In fact, Schumann wrote its first version as his second work in this genre. The symphony it took its final shape only after ten years. Along the way, he created two more symphonies, and so The Second became The Fourth. The composition consists of four movements, performed – according to its author's instructions – without breaks. An atmosphere of anxiety prevails in the piece. In formal terms, it is also characterised by coherence, as the ideas introduced by the German artist return in various movements of the work. This musical integrity is quite easy to grasp when listening to the symphony, doubtless making it a source of aesthetic pleasure.