Italian music. Who wouldn’t associate it with Rossini and the opera? The programme organisers certainly did, and put Rossini’s refreshing and frisky overture at the beginning of the concert. When we think of concertos, Vivaldi will be the Italian composer to pop first into our minds. However, this concert will feature the baroque Benedetto Marcello’s Oboe Concerto, which was so popular in its time that even Bach made a transcription of it. Finally, a French composer looks upon Italy: Hector Berlioz’s symphony Harold in Italy will bring delight to the audience. The composer himself „acts” as Byron’s Harold telling us about his own adventures. The various solo instruments act as characters in the symphony. The protagonist, Harold, is represented by the solo viola. Liszt commented on this work as follows: „Berlioz in his work rises above those contradictions which derive from the direct juxtaposition of heavenly joyful Italy and a heart filled with disappointments and pain.” Byron or Berlioz’s Harold could be taken as the embodiment of the combination of Italian gaiety and Hungarian melancholy.