Paganini Violin Concerto with Kerson Leong
Canadian violin virtuoso Kerson Leong won the Yehudi Menuhin Competition at the age of thirteen and has been performing worldwide ever since. Together with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gordan Nikolić, he plays Paganini's challenging First Violin Concerto . When he performed Paganini's First Violin Concerto with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in November 2025, Kerson Leong treated his fans to flashy videos in which he plays the most difficult passages. 'A miracle of control and emotion,' according to The Sunday Times .
Schubert's unfinished symphony
Schubert, whose Eighth Symphony the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra is performing, forms the connecting factor in this program. He was deeply impressed by this violin virtuoso during Paganini's concerts in Vienna in 1828. Rossini, another contemporary of Schubert, wrote an irresistibly attractive overture for his opera L'Italiana in Algeri , which opens this program. In Vienna around 1823, there was a veritable Rossini fever. While Schubert's compositions were rarely performed during his lifetime, Rossini's operas were incredibly popular and drew enormous audiences.