Macao Orchestra 2025-26 Season Closing Concert
“Chopin by Rafał Blechacz”

Date: 25/07/2026 Saturday 20:00

Venue : Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium

Conductor／Lio Kuokman
Piano／Rafał Blechacz

Programme
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11
Respighi: Pines of Rome,P.141

In 2005, 20-year-old Rafał Blechacz won the equivalent of the Olympic gold grand slam, winning Warsaw’s International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition with his perfect rendition of the composer’s First Piano Concerto, a landmark of lyricism, beauty and elegance in the annals of music history, thus becoming the second Pole to win the top prize since Krystian Zimerman. After his youthful triumph, Blechacz pursued a doctorate in philosophy, bringing maturity and gravitas to his musical interpretation. Respighi’s Pines of Rome, a four-movement tone poem, is one of the most descriptive works for orchestra written in the last century, a love token to the ancient trees— from Villa Borghese to the Appian Way—that witnessed the passage of time of this Eternal City.

Approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, including one interval