The audience can welcome three grand-scale and special compositions this evening. Berlioz re-arranged two pivotal scenes from an earlier opera of his into a stand-alone overture with the title Roman Carnival, which is not only about seeking a solution for a clandestine love affair in the turbulence of a carnival but also serves as a role model for later opera finales with its festive and passionate atmosphere. Several composers had written variations on the children’s song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, but these tend to be smaller-scale chamber music pieces. Dohnányi’s variations, however,  take the form of a virtuoso piano concerto, where following a grim introduction, the composer’s humour comes to show in the main theme of the actual nursery tune, contrary to all expectations. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 can be regarded as the symphony of his own destiny: its dramatic initial theme keeps recurring and making its mark on the rest of the piece. Defeating destiny is the central question also raised in Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6, which give different answers each time.